(Zrl/.  ^/yu 


JOIETW  WEILS© W,E 


ETTGHAVEI  BY 


THE  LIFE 


OF 


JOHN  WILSON,  D.D.  F.R.S. 

FOR  FIFTY  YEAES  PHILANTHROPIST  AND  SCHOLAR 
IN  THE  EAST 


BY  GEOKGE  SMITH,  LL.D. 

. 

COMPANION  OF  THE  ORDER  OF  THE  INDIAN  EMPIRE  ; 

FELLOW  OF  THE  STATISTICAL  SOCIETY;   CORRESPONDING  MEMBER  OF  THE 
ORIENTALISCHES  MUSEUM,  VIENNA. 


&vacrTa,Tii)<ra,vT€S  oSroi  Kal  £vdd8e  irdpeuriv 


WITH    PORTRAIT  AND    ILLUSTRATIONS 


LONDON 
JOHN    MURRAY,  ALBEMARLE    STREET 

1878 

The  right  of  Translation  is  reserved 


-  - 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  CLARK,  Edinburgh. 


Folume  is  Betrtcateti 

TO  THE  OLD  AND  TO  THE  NEW: 

TO 
THE  EIGHT  HONOURABLE 

JOHN,  LOED  LAWEENCE,  G.C.B.,  G.C.S.L,  D.C.L., 

LAST  AND  GREATEST  OF  THE  CIVIL  SERVANTS  OF  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY 
AS  HIS   BROTHER  HENRY  WAS  OF  ITS  SOLDIERS; 

AND  TO 

CHAELES  U.  AITCHISON,  C.S.I.,  LL.D., 

CHIEF  COMMISSIONER  OF  BRITISH   BURMAH ; 

FOREMOST  IN  EVERY  SENSE  OF  THE  COMPETITION  CIVILIANS  UNDER 
THE  CROWN. 


•513140 


PEEFACE. 


WHEN,  a  year  ago,  I  was  asked  by  his  son  to  go  over  the 
voluminous  papers  and  write  the  life  of  Dr.  Wilson  of  Bom- 
bay, I  at  once  sacrificed  other  engagements  to  the  duty. 
As  Editor  of  the  Calcutta  Review  for  some  time  before  the 
Mutiny  of  1857,  and  as  Editor  of  The  Friend  of  India  and 
Correspondent  of  The  Times  for  many  years  after  it,  I  was 
called  to  observe  and  occasionally  to  discuss  the  career  of 
the  Philanthropist  and  Scholar  of  Western  India.  For  forty- 
seven  years  as  a  public  man  and  a  missionary  he  worked, 
he  wrote,  he  spoke,  and  in  countless  ways  he  joyfully  toiled 
for  the  people  of  India.  While  viceroys  and  governors,  officials 
and  merchants,  scholars  and  travellers,  succeeded  each  other 
and  passed  away  all  too  rapidly,  he  remained  a  permanent 
living  force,  a  mediator  between  the  natives  and  the  govern- 
ing class,  an  interpreter  of  the  varied  Asiatic  races,  creeds, 
and  longings,  to  their  alien  but  benevolent  rulers.  Nor  was 
his  work  for  his  own  countrymen  less  remarkable,  in  its  degree, 
than  his  life  of  self-sacrifice  for  Hindoos  and  Muhammadans, 
Parsees  and  Jews,  outcastes  and  aborigines,  and  his  building 
up  of  the  indigenous  Church  of  India.  His  influence  main- 
tained an  English  standard  of  morality  and  manners  in 
society,  while  he  was  the  centre  of  a  select  group  of  ad- 
ministrators, not  confined  to  Bombay,  like  Sir  Donald 
M'Leod,  to  mention  only  the  dead.  As  an  Orientalist  and 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

scholar,  the  power  of  his  memory  was  only  less  remarkable 
than  the  ardour  of  his  industry;  his  linguistic  instinct  was 
regulated  by  the  philosophy  with  which  his  native  country  is 
identified,  and  all  were  directed  by  the  loftiest  motive  and 
the  purest  passion  that  can  inflame  the  breast.  Wealth  and 
honours  he  put  from  him,  save  when  he  could  make  them  also 
ministers  in  the  work  of  humanity.  From  Central  India  to 
Central  Africa,  and  from  Cabul  to  Comorin,  there  are  thousands 
who  call  John  Wilson  blessed.  His  hundreds  of  educated 
converts  and  catechumens  are  the  seed  of  the  Church  of 
Western  India.  Every  missionary  and  student  of  India 
Missions  must  sit  at  his  feet. 

From  1864,  when  I  first  visited  Bombay,  to  his  death  at 
the  close  of  1875,  I  learned  to  know  the  man  as  well  as  his 
work.  But  he  cannot  be  so  well  reproduced  on  the  cold 
page,  for  his  own  writings  do  not  reflect  the  charm  of  his 
talk,  which  delighted  generations  of  friends,  from  Sir  John 
Malcolm  to  Lord  Mayo  and  Lord  Northbrook,  Sir  Bartle 
Frere  and  Mr.  Grant  DufF.  My  aim  is  that  this  volume  may 
supply  the  materials,  at  least,  from  which  his  Country  and 
the  Church  Catholic,  oriental  scholars,  and  the  princes  and 
educated  natives  of  India,  shall  not  only  see  what  manner  of 
man  he  was  but  be  stimulated  by  his  rare  example.  I  hope 
also  that  the  sketches  of  the  other  good  and  great  men  who 
worked  for  a  time  by  his  side,  may  not  be  without  interest ; 
and  that,  still  more,  it  may  be  seen  how  the  British  Govern- 
ment is  rising  to  the  height  of  our  national  responsibility 
for  the  good  of  the  millions  of  Southern  Asia,  and  of  the 
neighbouring  Malay,  Chinese,  Tatar,  Persian,  Arab,  Abys- 
sinian, and  Negro  peoples. 


PREFACE.  IX 

This  is  an  English  book,  and  therefore,  though  it  occa- 
sionally treats  purely  scholarly  questions,  the  English  vowels 
are  used  to  transliterate  oriental  names  and  terms.  Save  in 
occasional  extracts  which  demand  the  preservation  of  the 
original  spelling,  and  in  the  name  which  I  would  fain  have 
printed  "  Boodhist,"  hardly  an  Asiatic  word  or  phrase  will  be 
found  which  is  not  so  rendered  as  to  be  capable  of  correct 
pronunciation,  and  of  being  easily  understood.  Scholars 
who  write  for  scholars  only,  do  well  to  follow  the  Indian  and 
European  vowel  sounds.  Scholars,  officials,  and  all  who 
desire  the  English  reader  to  be  attracted  to,  instead  of  being 
repelled  from,  the  study  of  India  and  the  East,  will  use 
English  as  uniformly  as  ineradicable  custom  permits. 

Besides  the  acknowledgments  made  in  the  course  of  the 
narrative,  I  have  to  thank  for  their  assistance  his  Excellency 
Sir  Richard  Temple,  Bart.,  who,  as  the  present  Governor  of 
Bombay,  instructed  the  departments  to  supply  copies  of  some 
of  Dr.  Wilson's  official  correspondence ;  Sir  Alexander  Grant, 
Bart.,  Principal  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  who,  as 
Director  of  Public  Instruction  for  some  years,  was  closely 
associated  with  Dr.  Wilson  ;  the  third  Sir  Jamsetjee  Jeejeeb- 
hoy,  Bart.;  the  Revs.  Dhunjeebhoy  Nowrojee  and  R. 
Stothert,  M.A. ;  Dr.  Birdwood,  C.S.I.,  and  Dr.  R.  Rost,  of 
the  India  Office ;  Hugh  Miller,  M.D.,  Esq.  of  Broomfield, 
Helensburgh ;  W.  P.  Jervis,  Esq.  of  Turin ;  Professors 
Charteris  and  Eggeling ;  and  Professor  Weber  of  Berlin,  who 
has  communicated  to  me,  through  Mr.  John  Muir,  D.C.L., 
C.I.E.,  his  very  high  estimate  of  the  scientific  pursuits  of 
Dr.  Wilson  as  an  Orientalist  who  subordinated  scholarly  repu- 
tation to  missionary  ends.  Only  the  long  frontier  war,  and 


X  PREFACE. 

the  other  cares  of  his  office  as  Governor  of  Cape  Colony, 
have  prevented  his  Excellency  Sir  Bartle  Frere  from  con- 
tributing reminiscences  of  his  lifelong  friend. 

As  this  volume  has  passed  through  the  press  death  has 
removed  these  contemporaries  and  correspondents  of  Dr. 
Wilson — the  Rev.  John  Cooper,  his  early .  colleague ;  Dr. 
Lang,  of  Sydney ;  M.  Garcin  de  Tassy,  of  Paris ;  Professor 
Westergaard,  of  Copenhagen ;  and  Mr.  George  Thompson. 


SERAMPORE  HOUSE,  MERCHISTON, 

EDINBURGH,  19th  October  1878. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

PAGE 

HOME — SCHOOL — UNIVERSITY — VOYAGE  TO  BOMBAY       .         .  1 


CHAPTEE  II. 

OLD  BOMBAY  AND  ITS  GOVERNORS  TO  1829  .         .         .         35 

CHAPTEK  III. 

ORGANISATION  AND  FIRST  FRUIT  OF  THE  MISSION  .         .         55 

CHAPTEE   IV. 

PUBLIC  DISCUSSIONS  WITH   LEARNED  HINDOOS  AND  MUHAM- 

MADANS x"       .         .         .97 

CHAPTEE  V. 

TOURS  TO  NASIK  ;  TO  JALNA  AND  ELORA  ;  TO  GOA,  KOLHA- 

PORE,  AND  MAHABLESHWAR       .         .         .         .         .         .137 

CHAPTEE  VI. 

TOUR  TO  DAMAN,  SURAT,  BARODA,  KATHIAWAR,  KUTCH,  DWARKA, 

AND  SOMNATH         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .179 

CHAPTEE   VII. 

ZAND  SCHOLARSHIP  AND  THE  PARSEE  CONTROVERSY  209 


xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE   VIII. 

PACK 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  MISSION       .  .243 

CHAPTER   IX. 

TOUES — GAIRSOPPA  FALLS — RAJPOOTANA — KATHIAWAR — THE 

SOMNATH  GATES     .         .  .  .271 

CHAPTER   X. 

ORIENTAL  SCHOLARSHIP  AND  SCHOLARS  .  .  311 

* 

CHAPTER   XL 

HOME  BY  ADEN,  CAIRO,  SINAI,  PETRA,  HEBRON,  JERUSALEM, 

DAMASCUS,  CONSTANTINOPLE,  AND  PESTH          .         .         .351 

CHAPTER   XII. 

THE  MISSIONARY  SIDE  OF  1843    .  .  .375 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

AMONG  BOOKS — SECOND  MARRIAGE — OVER  EUROPE  TO  BOMBAY       407 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

A  NEW  PERIOD — TOUR  IN  SINDH — THE  BOMBAY  SCHOOL  OF 

THE  CATECHUMENS  .         .         .         .         .         .         .429 

CHAPTER   XV. 

LITERARY  ACTIVITY — THE  ROCK-CUT  TEMPLES  .       461 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE  MUTINY  AND  ITS  GOOD  FRUIT  .       501 


CONTENTS. 


Xlll 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

PAGE 

THE  KRISHNA  ORGIES — DR.  WILSON  AMONG  THE  EDUCATED 

NATIVES .       543 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

NEW   BOMBAY — DR.   WILSON   AMONG   THE   EUROPEANS — DR. 

LIVINGSTONE — THE  ABYSSINIAN  EXPEDITION  .       567 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

SECOND  AND  LAST  VISIT  HOME 


597 


CHAPTER   XX. 


BEST 


611 


APPENDIX. 

DR.  WILSON  ON  NATIVE  RULE  IN  BARODA  AND  NATIVE  OPINION 

ON  BRITISH  RULE    .  631 


INDEX 


639 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

DR.  WILSON  AS  MODERATOR  OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY       Frontispiece. 
MAP  OF  THE  CITY  OF  BOMBAY  .         .         .     To  face  page    37 


MAP  OF  THE  LANDS  AROUND  THE  INDIAN  OCEAN  IN- 
FLUENCED BY  DR.  WILSON       .         . 

THE  GIRNAR  ROCK  AND  SECOND  EDICT  OF  ASOKA   . 


249 
327 


CHAPTER  I. 

1804-1828. 
HOME— SCHOOL— UNIVERSITY— VOYAGE  TO  BOMBAY. 

Lauder  and  Lauderdale — The  Border  and  the  Men  it  has  sent  to  India — 
The  Wilsons  of  Lauder — The  Burgh  Common  and  the  Big  Farms — John 
"Wilson,  "The  Priest" — Memories  of  Waterloo — Dr.  James  Fairbairn  on 
Schoolboy  days  and  the  Dawn  of  Evangelicalism — John  Wilson,  Schoolmaster 
and  Tutor — Early  Indian  and  Bombay  Influences — The  Arts  Course  at  Edin- 
burgh University — The  Theological  Professors — Rebellion  of  the  Divinity 
Students — Founds  the  University  Missionary  Society — Earliest  Publications 
— Ordained — The  Bayne  Sisters — Marriage — The  Latest  of  the  East  India 
Company's  Passports — First  view  of  Cape  Comorin  and  Western  India — 
Arrives  at  Bombay. 


"  Wisdom  and  Spirit  of  the  Universe  ! 
Thou  Soul,  that  art  the  eternity  of  thought 
And  giv'st  to  forms  and  images  a  breath 
And  everlasting  motion,  not  in  vain 
By  day  or  star-light  thus  from  my  first  dawn 
Of  childhood  didst  thou  intertwine  for  me 
The  passions  that  build  up  our  human  soul ; 
Not  with  the  mean  and  vulgar  works  of  man  ; 
But  with  high  objects,  with  enduring  things, 
With  life  and  nature  ;  purifying  thus 
The  elements  of  feeling  and  of  thought, 
And  sanctifying  by  such  discipline 
Both  pain  and  fear, — until  we  recognise 
A  grandeur  in  the  beatings  of  the  heart." 

WORDSWORTH  in  The  Prelude. 


"Audieram  enim  ego,  adhuc  puer,  de  vita  eterna  nobis  promissa  per 
humilitatem  Domini  Dei  nostri  descendentis  ad  superbiam  nostram  ;  et 
signabar  jam  signo  crucis  Ejus,  et  condiebar  Ejus  sale,  jam  inde  ab  utero 
matris  mese  quae  multum  speravit  in  Te." — S.  AUR.  ATTGUSTINI  Confessio. 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON,  D.D. 


CHAPTER    I. 

AT  a  point  some  twenty-five  miles  to  the  south-east  of  the 
city  of  Edinburgh,  the  three  counties  of  Edinburgh,  Berwick, 
and  Roxburgh  meet.  The  spot  is  the  summit  of  Lauder  Hill, 
which  rises  between  the  railway  station  of  Stow  and  the 
royal  burgh  of  Lauder,  chief  of  all  the  district  of  Lauder- 
dale.  As  we  stand  on  the  ancient  road,  now  grass-grown, 
we  survey  perhaps  the  widest  and  most  quietly  beautiful 
scene  that  the  Scottish  Border  can  present.  From  the 
Lammermoor  to  the  Cheviot  Hills,  with  the  rounded  Eildons 
sprouting  at  their  base,  the  breadth  of  the  two  border 
counties,  the  Merse  or  march  of  Berwick  and  the  fells  of 
Roxburgh,  are  spread  out  before  us.  Distant  Teviot  and 
near  Tweed  roll  down  to  the  North  Sea,  watering  a  land  of 
more  historic  renown  than  any  other  part  of  the  too  long 
disunited  Kingdom.  Behind  we  have  left  Gala  Water,  with 
its  memories  of  legend  and  of  song ;  before  us,  half  hidden 
by  the  hill  on  which  we  stand,  is  the  Leader  which  gives 
its  name  to  Lauderdale.  For  more  than  twenty  miles  the 
stream  flows  on  from  the  Lammermoors  till  it  mingles  its 
waters  with  the  Tweed  below  Melrose  Abbey.  Even  Scot- 
land presents  few  valleys  so  broad,  so  fertile,  as  this  Lauder 
dale  throughout  its  long  extent.  Monk  and  warrior  early 
chose  it  for  their  own,  from  Dryburgh  Abbey  where  Sir 
Walter  Scott  lies,  and  Erceldoune  or  Earlston  where  Thomas 


4^  ^  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1804. 

the  Bhymer  sang  his  prophecies,  to  Thirlestane  Castle  where 
the  Maitlands  of  Lauderdale  still  pleasantly  perpetuate  a 
house  well  known  in  Scottish  history.  Here  it  was,  along 
the  great  highway,  from  the  marshalling-ground  of  the 
Boroughmuir  of  Edinburgh  to  the  fords  of  the  Tweed  and 
the  field  of  Flodden,  that  the  Edwards  led  their  invading 
armies,  and  the  Stewarts  their  avenging  forces ;  while  noble 
and  yeoman  on  both  sides  the  marches  fought  for  their 
own  hand.  Old  Thirlestane,  near  whose  ruins  the  Leader 
now  flows  so  gently,  was  long  the  tower  from  which  "  Mait- 
land,  with  his  auld  grey  beard,"  whom  Gawan  Douglas 
thought  worthy  of  a  place  in  his  allegory  of  the  "  Palace  of 
Honour,"  beat  back  the  English.  The  ballad  of  "Auld 
Maitland,"  as  taken  down  from  the  lips  of  Jane  Hogg,  the 
Ettrick  Shepherd's  mother,  who  had  learned  it  from  a  blind 
man  of  ninety,  deserves  all  the  enthusiasm  Sir  Walter  Scott 
expresses  for  it.  But  even  finer  to  the  son  of  the  Border 
is  the  more  modern  song  of  "  Leader  Haughs  and  Yarrow," 
with  its  quaint  poetic  catalogue  of  names  and  places  sweeter 
to  the  natives  of  Lauderdale  and  Selkirk  than  those  of  Homer 
or  of  Milton.  The  old  minstrel  sighs  at  the  close  for  the 
glory  that  is  departed,  for  he  wrote  doubtless  in  the  evil  days 
just  after  the  duke  built  the  present  castle  in  1674 — 

"  Sing  Erlington  and  Cowdenknowes, 
Where  Humes  had  ance  commanding  ; 
And  Drygrange  with  the  milk-white  yowes 
'Twixt  Tweed  and  Leader  standing  : 
The  bird  that  flees  through  Redpath  trees 
And  Gladswood  banks  ilk  morrow, 
May  chaunt  and  sing  sweet  Leader  Haughs 
And  bonnie  howms  of  Yarrow. 

"  But  minstrel  Burne  cannot  assuage 
His  grief,  while  life  endureth, 
To  see  the  changes  of  his  age 
Which  fleeting  time  procureth  ; 


1804.]  HIS  BIRTH.  5 

For  mony  a  place  stands  in  hard  case, 
Where  blythe  folk  kend  nae  sorrow, 
With  Humes  that  dwelt  on  Leader-side 
And  Scotts  that  dwelt  on  Yarrow." 

It  was  at  Lauder,  too,  in  the  days  of  the  Third  James, 
that  Archibald  Douglas  "belled  the  cat,"  hanging  before  his 
sovereign's  eyes  five  of  the  low  favourites  who  misled  the 
royal  youth.  Nor  should  it  be  overlooked  that  the  minister  of 
Lauder,  inducted  in  1638,  was  James  Guthrie,  the  Covenanter 
whom  Lauderdale  martyred  along  with  the  Marquis  of  Argyll, 
the  Earl  of  Tweeddale  alone  pleading  for  the  milder  sentence 
of  banishment.  But  modern  times  have  brought  more  peaceful 
associations.  Except,  perhaps,  the  Highland  Inverness-shire, 
no  part  of  Scotland  has  been  so  fruitful  a  nursery  of  heroes 
for  the  civilisation,  if  not  the  conquest  of  our  Indian  Empire. 
Tweedside  and  its  many  dales  have,  in  the  last  century,  sent 
forth  Kers  and  Elliots,  Douglases  and  Eiddells,  Scotts  and 
Walkers,  Malcolms  and  Grays,  Napiers  and  Murrays  to  the 
noblest  work  any  country  has  ever  done  for  humanity.  To  a 
governor-general  like  Lord  Minto,  a  statesman  like  Sir  John 
Malcolm,  a  scholar  and  poet  like  Dr.  Leyden,  and  an  econo- 
mist like  James  Wilson,  we  have  now  to  add  the  Christian 
missionary  John  Wilson.  He  was  as  great  a  scholar  and 
as  benevolent  a  philanthropist  as  the  best  of  them,  or  as  all 
of  them  together ;  and  he  was  a  more  potent  force  than  they, 
because  he  gave  himself  to  the  people  of  India  for  a  life  of 
continuous  service,  covering  nearly  half  a  century,  and  because 
that  service  was  inspired  and  fed  every  hour  by  the  highest  of 
all  motives,  the  purest  of  all  forms  of  self-sacrifice. 

John  Wilson  was  born  in  the  Berwickshire  burgh  of 
Lauder  on  the  llth  day  of  December  1804.  He  was  the 
eldest  of  seven  children,  four  brothers  and  three  sisters,  most 
of  whom  still  survive.  He  came  of  a  long-lived  stock  of  small 
proprietors  and  farmers  who  for  two  hundred  years  inhabited 


6  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1804. 

the  thatched,  but  now  enlarged, house  in  the  "  Eow"  of  the  town 
in  which  he  first  saw  the  light.  His  great-grandfather  reached 
the  age  of  ninety-eight,  his  grandfather  lived  to  be  eighty-eight, 
his  father  and  mother  each  died  at  eighty-two.  Physically,  he 
thus  inherited  a  constitution  of  singular  elasticity  and  power 
of  endurance,  under  the  frequent  hardship  of  toilsome  jour- 
neys and  malarious  disease  in  the  jungles  of  Western  India, 
before  British  railways,  or  even  roads,  had  opened  them  up. 
His  father,  Andrew  Wilson,  was  for  more  than  forty  years 
a  councillor  of  the  burgh,  and  was  an  elder  in  the  parish 
kirk.  His  mother,  Janet  Hunter,  the  eldest  of  a  family  of 
thirteen  most  of  whom  lived  to  a  good  old  age,  was  a  woman 
of  great  force  of  character.  This,  added  to  the  kindly  un- 
selfishness which  marked  her  eldest  son  also,  caused  her  to 
be  in  constant  request  by  her  neighbours  in  times  of  sickness 
and  trouble.  Father  and  mother  combined  in  their  rearing 
the  economic  conditions  of  the  surrounding  district.  Lauder- 
dale,  to  the  east  of  the  Leader,  is  a  district  of  large 
farms,  yielding  an  average  rental  of  a  thousand  a  year  and 
upwards,  even  in  those  days,  and  worked  in  the  very  best 
style  of  the  grande  culture.  Of  James  Hunter,  the  leaseholder 
of  one  of  the  most  extensive  of  these,  John  Wilson's  mother 
was  the  eldest  daughter.  To  the  west  of  the  stream  lie  the 
town  and  its  unusually  wide  commonage,  covering  at  the 
present  time  1*700  acres,  but  doubtless  larger  a  century  ago. 
The  land  is  owned  by  the  burgesses,  and  a  very  considerable 
share  of  it  had  always  been  possessed  by  the  Wilsons  of  the 
"Eow."  The  old  conditions  are  only  now  beginning  to  give 
place  to  the  same  influences  which  have  made  the  high  farm- 
ing of  the  Lothians  and  the  Merse  famous  in  the  history 
of  agriculture.  At  last  some  of  the  "portioners"  have 
combined  to  work  the  common  land  by  the  steam  plough  on 
a  large  scale.  Yet,  till  this  present  year,  the  greater  part  of. 
the  burgh  lands  has  been  little  more  than  fine  pasture  slopes, 


1804.]  HIS  CHILDHOOD.  7 

to  which  the  cattle  have  been  led  daily,  under  a  common 
herdsman.  Of  such  a  stock,  and  out  of  the  very  heart  of 
farmer-life,  sprang  the  thoughtful  scholar,  the  unwearied 
preacher,  the  distinguished  philanthropist  of  Bombay. 

No  love  had  he,  though  the  eldest  of  four  sons,  for  the 
doubly  ancestral  and  honourable  calling.  From  the  womb 
he  had  a  higher  vocation.  Had  he  become  the  apostle  of  a 
superstitious  mysticism,  like  Gooroo  Nanuk,  the  founder  of 
the  Sikh  dissent  from  Hindooism,  the  same  stories  might 
have  been  told  of  the  great  Christian  Gooroo.  For  Nanuk, 
too,  was  the  son  of  the  chief  "  portioner  "  of  the  common  of  a 
village  near  Lahore,  and  he  failed  to  keep  his  father's 
buffaloes  from  the  cultivated  fields.  Nanuk  never  played 
like  other  children,  so  that  the  Hindoos  said,  "  Some  god  is 
in  him."  On  the  second  of  Andrew  Wilson's  sons  fell  the 
duty  of  helping  in  the  farm,  and  of  driving  the  cattle  to  the 
nearest  fair  of  St.  Boswell's.  From  infancy  John  revealed 
himself  as  meant  for  a  very  different  lot.  When  a  baby  he 
almost  alarmed  his  mother  by  speaking  before  he  could  walk, 
and  with  an  intelligence  unprecedented  in  the  experience  of 
the  neighbours.  So  the  Mussulman  villagers  had  said  of 
Nanuk,  "A  holy  man  of  God  has  been  born!"  As  he  grew 
up  John  Wilson  was  to  his  schoolfellows  "  the  priest,"  by 
which  name  he  was  always  known  among  them.  His  early 
developed  tendencies  brought  him  into  trouble.  On  one 
occasion  the  boy  was  found  preaching  from  a  hollow  tree 
behind  Thirlestane  Castle  to  the  people  who  were  sauntering 
home  on  the  Sacrament  Sunday  evening,  and  was  chastised 
for  what  seemed  to  his  parents  an  offence.  The  secret  of 
his  life  was  not  one  which  mere  heredity  may  explain,  though 
that  too  will  find  data  in  it.  It  is  thus  stated  by  himself  in 
a  "  diary  of  religious  experience "  which  he  began  to  write 
on  his  twentieth  birthday,  but  did  not  continue  beyond  his 
departure  for  India  : — "  When  about  the  age  of  three  years,  I 


8  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1807. 

was  put  to  sleep  in  the  same  bed  with  my  aged  grandfather 
by  my  father's  side.  He  was  the  first  person,  if  I  remember 
rightly,  who  communicated  to  me  any  knowledge  about  God 
and  my  soul.  I  remember  well  the  effect  his  instructions,  by 
the  blessing  of  God,  produced  upon  my  mind :  the  impressions 
which  were  then  conveyed  to  me  have  never  been  wholly  re- 
moved from  me.  I  can  never  forget  the  fervour  with  which 
he  engaged  in  his  evening  private  devotions,  and  the  feeling 
with  which  at  such  times  he  repeated  the  twenty-third  Psalm, 
especially  the  concluding  verse — 

'  Goodness  and  mercy  all  my  life 

Shall  surely  follow  me, 
And  in  God's  house  for  evermore 
My  dwelling-place  shall  "be.' 

"  I  was  very  early  under  conviction  of  sin,  and  I  trust  that 
the  Lord  at  an  early  period  of  my  life  took  a  saving  dealing 
with  my  soul.  When  about  the  age  of  four  years  I  was  sent 
to  a  school  in  Lauder  taught  by  Mr.  George  Murray,  where  I 
continued  about  the  space  of  one  year.  I  then  went  to  the  parish 
school  taught  by  Mr.  Alexander  Paterson,  where,  under  Mr. 
Paterson's  instructions,  I  made  remarkable  progress."  It  was 
an  early  and  it  became  a  fruitful  consecration  ;  even  as  that 
of  the  prophet  of  Naioth  and  the  statesman  of  Eamah. 

John  Wilson  proved  to  be  as  fortunate  in  his  teacher  and 
in  his  companions  as  in  his  early  home  life.  A  new  spirit 
in  truth  was  abroad  over  the  land,  which  had  long  lain  under 
the  spell  of  what  is  called  "moderatism"  in  Scotland.  It 
was  the  beginning,  too,  of  that  fifty  years'  period  of  peace  and 
reform,  in  State  as  well  as  Church,  which  the  crowning 
victory  of  Waterloo  seemed  to  introduce.  Dr.  Wilson  used 
to  tell  how,  when  he  was  little  more  than  ten  years  old,  the 
Edinburgh  coach  came  to  Lauder  adorned  with  boughs,  and 
one  who  had  gone  to  the  place  where  it  stopped,  to  hear  the 
news,  rushed  down  the  Eow  shouting  "  We've  just  annihilated 


1808.]  MEMORIES  OF  HIS  SCHOOLBOY  DAYS.  9 

them."  In  both  Lander  and  Stow  there  happened  to  be  evan- 
gelical preachers  in  the  parish  churches,  Mr.  Cosens  and  Dr. 
Cormack,  while  the  "  Burgher "  or  seceding  congregations 
were  everywhere  ministered  to  by  earnest  men,  to  whom 
many  of  the  surrounding  families  were  driven  by  the  old 
"moderates."  The  coming  of  Mr.  Paterson  to  the  parish 
school  at  this  time  was  an  event  of  importance.  It  affected 
at  once  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  whole  district,  and 
speedily  brought  within  the  reach  of  evangelical  teaching  all 
the  hopeful  youth  of  the  surrounding  country.  The  survivor 
of  that  band,  the  venerable  Dr.  Fairbairn  of  Newhaven,  has 
thus  written  out  the  memories  of  these  days  : — 

"  John  Wilson  was  one  of  a  group  of  boys  who  received 
their  early  education  at  the  parish  school  of  Lauder,  and 
most  of  whom  proceeded  together  to  the  University  of 
Edinburgh.  I  have  them  all  in  my  mind's  eye,  in  the 
flower  of  their  boyhood,  as  fresh  as  yesterday — John  and 
Peter  Purves,  George  Paterson,  George  Douglas,  James  and 
David  Kunciman,  John  Paterson,  John  Wilson,  William 
Eomanes,  Patrick  Fairbairn,  Alexander  Murray,  James 
Haswell,  Alexander  Jamieson,  Eobert  Lees,  Thomas  Simpson, 
William  Broomfield,  William  Dove,  and  others.  Most  of 
them  ran  a  successful  career  in  life,  and  some  of  them 
attained  great  eminence.  Here  they  are — distinct,  but  oh  ! 
how  distant — for  with  one  exception  they  have  all  passed 
within  the  veil,  and  I  alone  am  left  to  tell  their  story. 

"  I  have  the  most  distinct  recollection  of  the  characters  of 
all  my  school-fellows,  and  not  least  of  John  Wilson.  He  was 
a  modest,  devout,  affectionate,  and  gentle  boy,  always  ready 
to  take  part  with  the  weakest,  and  never  in  a  quarrel  or  a 
scrape.  He  was,  I  think,  the  most  diligent  and  persevering 
student  in  the  school,  and  I  can  readily  understand  how  he 
attained  to  such  acquirements  and  success.  He  was  also 
eminently  truthful  and  sincere.  There  was  one  of  our 
number  (James  Runciman)  whom  our  teacher  always  charac- 


10  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1815. 

terised  as  the  'boy  who  never  told  a  lie,'  and  he  used  to 
associate  John  Wilson  with  him  in  this  honourable  dis- 
tinction. I  remember  in  one  of  the  intervals  of  our  school 
day,  a  band  of  us  started  '  up  the  burn '  for  fishing  and  other 
diversions.  Seduced  by  the  summer  sunlight  (oh  how  bright 
it  was  in  those  days !)  we  heeded  not  the  lapse  of  time,  till 
the  school  hour  had  passed.  Then  came  a  conference  to 
determine  what  we  would  say  for  ourselves,  and  various  pro- 
posals, savouring,  I  fear,  of  diplomacy,  were  made.  But  the 
discussion  was  cut  short  by  John  Wilson  saying,  in  a  tone 
unusually  energetic  for  him,  '  I  tell  you  what — we  will  tell 
the  truth,'  and  the  truth  he  told — aye,  and  continued  to  tell 
it  till  his  dying  day. 

"  I  well  remember  also  a  very  bright  and  calm  summer 
Sabbath  day.  As  the  people  went  along  the  road  to  church, 
there  was  a  question  in  every  mouth — '  Will  they  be  fechtin 
on  sic  a  day  as  this  ? '  After  sermon  there  was  a  fellowship- 
meeting  in  the  session-house  of  the  Burgher -meeting-house, 
into  which  my  friend  John  and  I  contrived  to  get  admission. 
Again  the  question  went  round,  '  Will  they  be  fechtin'  ? '  and 
the  inquiry  tinged  all  the  services  with  unusual  solemnity. 
A  venerable  white-headed  elder,  Saunders  Downie,  the  tailor — 
who  has  passed  long  since  into  the  fellowship  of  the  four-and- 
twenty  Elders  that  sit  around  the  Throne — delivered  himself 
to  this  effect:  'Surely,'  he  said  in  his  godly  simplicity, 
'  surely  they'll  let  the  blessed  Sabbath  ower  afore  they  fecht.' 
Whether  they  were  '  fechtin', '  or  whether  they  let  the  blessed 
Sabbath  over  before  doing  so,  you  will  judge  when  I  say  that 
that  Sabbath  day  was  the  18th  of  June  1815.  Then  came  a 
week  of  anxiety ;  groups  of  people  stood  all  the  day  at  the 
head  of  the  town,  in  the  expectation  of  hearing  the  booming 
of  the  guns  of  the  distant  castle  of  Edinburgh  announcing  a 
victory.  At  last  came  the  full  accounts  of  the  great  battle, 
which  filled  every  mouth  and  heart  for  many  a  long  day.  I 
recollect  we  were  both  much  impressed  with  all  this,  and  had 


1818.]  THE  DAWN  OF  A  NEW  TIME.  11 

our  minds  opened  for  the  first  time  to  the  fact  that  there  was 
a  wide  world  beyond  the  limits  of  our  little  valley,  and  that 
it  was  a  world  in  which  much  evil  abounded,  and  which  stood 
in  great  need  of  improvement. 

"  Then  came  a  movement  on  behalf  of  the  first  of  the  evan- 
gelistic schemes  which  succeeded  in  penetrating  to  that  part  of 
the  country.  This  was  the  Bible  Society  ;  and  I  recollect  a 
sermon  being  preached  on  its  behalf  in  the  Burgher  meeting- 
house by  the  Eev.  Dr.  Waugh  of  London,  at  which  my  friend 
and  I  were  present.  The  matter  and  manner  of  the  preacher 
were  both  deeply  impressive ;  and  I  rather  think  that,  if  the 
seeds  of  the  evangelistic  spirit  were  not  that  night  sown  for 
the  first  time  in  John  Wilson's  mind,  they  were,  to  say  the 
least  of  it,  very  copiously  and  effectually  watered.  After  that 
we  went  to  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  we  arrived  there 
just  at  the  time  when  evangelical  religion  began  to  reassert 
its  power  in  this  country.  The  old  Gospel,  which  had  been 
"  by  Cameron  thundered  and  by  Eenwick  poured,"  now  flowed 
forth  in  the  sweet  stream  of  Henry  Grey's  pathetic  eloquence, 
or  was  uttered  from  the  pulpit  of  St.  George's  by  the  mighty 
voice  of  Andrew  Thomson.  Some  of  us  were  not  very  sure 
about  it  at  first.  Coming  as  we  did  from  the  country  of  Thomas 
Boston,  there  was  something  new  to  us  in  the  methods  ot 
these  great  preachers.  One  of  our  number  indeed,  and  he  not 
the  least  earnest  among  us,  never  quite  overcame  his  scruples. 
He  held  it  all  to  be  '  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal/ 
and  declared  that  he  could  only  find  '  the  root  of  the  matter ' 
in  the  Secession  meeting-house  in  the  Potterrow,  then  minis- 
tered to  by  the  Eev.  Mr.  Simpson.  I  must  say  this  incident 
has  taught  me  a  great  lesson  of  caution  in  judging  of  new 
religious  movements.  We  soon  discovered,  however,  that  a 
new-born  day  of  light  and  truth  had  at  last  broken  out  in  this 
country ;  and  this  discovery  was  fully  made  to  us  by  the 
coming  of  Dr.  Eobert  Gordon  to  Edinburgh.  That  was  an 


12  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1818. 

era  in  our  spiritual  history  never  to  be  forgotten.  We  were 
all  carried  captive  by  the  mighty  spell  of  his  eloquence. 
John  Wilson  attached  himself  to  the  ministry  of  Dr.  Gordon, 
and  you  know  the  great  power  which  it  exercised  over  his 
mind  and  history.  All  my  recollections  of  my  beloved  school- 
fellow are  such  as  to  harmonise  with  his  after-life.  Truly  in 
his  case  '  the  child  was  father  of  the  man.' " 

In  his  fourteenth  year  John  Wilson  went  to  Edinburgh 
University,  to  begin  that  eight  years'  course  of  linguistic,  philo- 
sophical, and  theological  studies  by  which  the  Scottish 
Churches  still  wisely  produce  a  well-trained  and  often  cultured 
ministry.  Two  Border  youths,  from  the  not  very  distant 
Annandale,  had,  after  similar  home  and  school  training, 
matriculated  at  the  University  at  the  same  age,  and  had  not 
long  passed  out  of  it  when  the  Lauder  boy  first  entered  his 
name  in  that  fragment  of  the  old  building  which  occupied 
the  quadrangle  until  the  present  library  was  completed. 
These  were  Edward  Irving  and  Thomas  Carlyle.  Very  fresh 
traditions  of  the  former  still  circulated  among  his  juniors, 
while  the  latter  had  just  returned  from  his  mathematical 
teachership  in  Kirkcaldy  to  write  for  Brewster's  Encyclopaedia. 
Both  had  been  heroes  in  Sir  John  Leslie's  class,  where  Wilson 
succeeded  them  in  reputation  in  due  time.  We  cannot  say 
that  the  picture,  in  the  autobiography  which  Carlyle  wrote  in 
1831  as  "Sartor  Eesartus,"  of  "the  University  where  I  was 
educated,"  and  the  "eleven  hundred  Christian  striplings" 
turned  loose  into  its  "  small  ill-chosen  library,"  is  altogether 
a  caricature  of  the  facts.  At  any  rate,  Carlyle  admits  that 
there  were  some  eleven  of  that  number  who  were  eager  to 
learn,  and  Wilson  was  one  of  them  in  his  time,  as  Irving  and 
Carlyle  had  been  in  theirs.  Like  them,  too,  Wilson  took  to 
teaching.  At  the  close  of  the  first  session,  the  lad  conducted 
the  school  of  Horndean  on  the  Tweed,  laying  thus  early  the 
foundation  of  that  educational  experience  by  which,  as  Yer- 


1820.]  TUTOR  AND  PUPILS.  13 

nacular  Missionary,  Principal  of  an  English  College,  and 
Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University,  he  was  afterwards  to 
revolutionise  society  in  Western  India.  One  of  his  sisters 
still  tells  how  the  boy  of  fifteen  prepared  to  resist  a  midnight 
attempt  to  rob  him  of  the  school  fees  on  the  first  occasion 
on  which  he  had  gained  the  hard-earned  money.  At  the  close 
of  the  second  college  session,  the  Eev.  Dr.  Cormack,  of  the 
neighbouring  village  of  Stow,  made  the  successful  student 
tutor  to  his  son  and  nephews,  a  duty  which  he  discharged  in 
a  manner  to  endear  him  to  the  parents  of  both  almost  up  to 
the  time  of  his  departure  for  India.  Dr.  Cormack,  when 
himself  tutor  in  the  family  of  the  Eoses  of  Kilravock,  had 
married  one  of  the  daughters,  and  her  brother,  Colonel  Eose, 
had  sent  home  his  sons  to  be  educated  in  the  manse  at  Stow. 
When  Colonel,  afterwards  Sir  John,  Eose,  himself  returned 
to  his  family  estate  in  the  Highlands,  he  tried  to  induce  John 
Wilson  to  settle  in  his  family  there  for  some  time,  and  to 
accompany  his  boys  to  Holland,  so  highly  did  he  appreciate 
the  tutor's  services.  The  youths  were  happy  who  had  such 
a  guide,  himself  still  young.  Even  now  it  is  almost  pathetic 
to  read  the  letters  which  they  wrote  to  him  during  his 
absence  at  college  and  in  India,  and  carefully  treasured  by 
him  among  his  most  precious  papers.  One  of  the  lads  is  now 
Sir  John  Eose  Cormack,  a  well-known  physician  in  Paris. 
The  other  two  went  to  India  in  their  day,  where  their  old 
friend  met  them  sometimes,  and  where  they  won  a  name  for 
courage  and  ability  in  the  Sikh  wars. 

A  tour  which,  in  the  autumn  of  1824,  the  tutor  made  to 
the  North  with  his  pupils,  called  forth  a  series  of  letters  to  his 
home  in  which  we  find  such  entries  as  these.  At  Kingussie  he 
visited  the  periodical  fair :  "  All  the  people  were  very  merry. 
They  were  mostly  all  dressed  in  the  Highland  dress,  and, 
speaking  Gaelic,  they  appeared  quite  comical.  I  have  laughed 
this  whole  fortnight  at  them."  The  letters  show  the  same 


14  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1824. 

detailed  power  of  observation  and  genial  humour  which 
marked  his  Indian  tours,  and  made  him  the  most  delightful 
companion  on  such  occasions.  In  1827  he  reports,  "  I  have 
been  obliged  to  buy  a  pair  of  silver  spectacles  for  myself:" 
thus  early  did  study  begin  to  tell  on  him. 

To  this  residence  for  four  years,  with  college  intervals,  in 
Dr.  Cormack's  family,  we  must  trace  the  determination,  which 
he  early  formed,  to  give  his  life  to  the  people  of  India. 
When  afterwards  bidding  farewell  to  Dr.  Brown,  the  minister 
of  Langton,  he  expressed  regret  that  he  had  to  sail  before  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Berwickshire  Bible  Society,  for,  he  said, 
"  My  wish  was  to  have  stated  publicly  that  it  was  the  reading 
of  your  annual  reports  that  first  awakened  me  to  the  import- 
ance of  Missions,  and  led  me  to  resolve  to  devote  myself  to 
the  foreign  field."1  But  it  was  the  Eose  and  Cormack  influence 
which  directed  that  resolve  to  the  East,  at  a  time  when 
Scotland  had  not  a  missionary  there.  The  first  surprise  of 
the  young  tutor  of  sixteen,  when  he  began  his  duties  in  the 
manse  of  Stow,  was  caused  by  the  Hindostanee  which  alone 
the  Kose  boys  spoke,  like  so  many  Anglo-Indian  children 
fresh  from  the  influence  of  native  servants.  That  was  one  of 
the  first  languages  he  was  to  master  when  he  began  work  in 
Bombay,  in  order  by  voice  and  pen  to  influence  the  Muhamma- 
dans  and  all  who  used  what  is  a  mere  lingua  franca.  He  was 
more  or  less  in  an  Indian  atmosphere,  as  each  irregular  mail 
in  those  days  brought  news  of  Maratha  wars  and  Pindaree 
raids,  of  the  triumphs  of  Lord  Hastings,  of  the  political 
exploits  of  Malcolm,  the  yeoman's  son  of  the  not  distant 
Burnfoot,  and  of  Governor  Munro,  the  Glasgow  boy.  But 
more  living  to  the  youth  than  all  that  was  the  personal 
friendship  of  General  Walker,  who  often  drove  into  Stow 

1  I  take  this  from  notes  of  Dr.  Wilson's  student  life  supplied  by  Dr. 
Brown's  son,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Brown,  the  accomplished  minister  of  the  Dean 
Church  in  Edinburgh. 


1824.]  FIRST  BOMBAY  INFLUENCES.  15 

from  Bowland,  his  seat  on  the  Gala  Water.  As  political 
officer  in  charge  of  the  great  Native  State  of  Baroda,  with 
Kathiawar  and  Kutch,  he  had  won  for  himself  a  name  as  a 
philanthropist  and  administrator,  by  carrying  on  the  work  of 
the  old  Governor,  Jonathan  Duncan,  for  the  prevention  of 
female  infanticide  among  the  Jadeja  Eajpoots.  When  re- 
visiting Kathiawar  in  1809,  before  bidding  it  a  final  farewell, 
General  Walker  had  enjoyed  the  sweet  reward  of  seeing  not 
a  few  of  the  children  whom  he  had  preserved,  and  of  hearing 
one  infant  voice  lisping  to  him  in  the  Goojaratee  tongue — 
"  Walker  Sahib  saved  me."  The  entrancing  story  of  humanity 
became  familiar  to  Wilson  in  his  youth,  for  in  1819,  at  the 
very  time  of  his'  intercourse  with  the  lad,  the  retired  officer 
was  engaged  in  a  correspondence  with  the  Court  of  Directors, 
in  which  he  urged  them  to  keep  up  the  preventive  system  that 
had  effected  so  much,  but  was  being  neglected  by  a  new 
generation  of  officials.  The  only  result  was  the  General's 
appointment  as  Governor  of  St.  Helena,  the  small  population 
of  which  he  sought  to  benefit  with  the  same  kindly  wisdom 
that  he  had  shown  in  north  Bombay.  That  work  was  not 
unknown  in  the  country-side,  for  the  minister  of  Stow  had 
been  its  historian.  But  it  was  reserved  for  the  young  tutor 
himself  to  complete  it,  alike  by  stirring  up  the  Bombay  Govern- 
ment, and  by  writing  the  "History  of  the  Suppression  of 
Infanticide  in  Western  India "  in  1855,  and  again  in  1875. 
Thus  to  the  influences  of  home  and  of  school,  of  companions 
and  of  minister,  there  was  added,  at  the  time  when  he  was 
most  susceptible  of  such  impressions,  the  subtle  power  of  the 
society  of  men  like  Cormack  and  Walker,  who  drew  him 
unconsciously  to  the  work  prepared  for.  him  in  the  then  far 
off  and  shadowy  East. 

In  the  second  of  the  four  years  of  his  theological  studies, 
or  in  his  twentieth  year,  Wilson  became  more  closely  identi- 
fied with  Edinburgh  in  both  its  university  life  and  its  literary 


16  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1824. 

and  ecclesiastical  coteries.  He  had  taken  full  advantage  of 
the  Arts  course,  for  among  the  professors  of  that  faculty  were 
able  teachers  and  accomplished  savans.  Pillans,  unjustly 
satirised  by  Byron,  had  been  transferred  from  the  rector's 
chair  in  the  High  School  of  Edinburgh,  which  Dr.  Adam  had 
made  illustrious,  and  which  his  successor  had  not  dimmed  at 
least,  to  the  professorship  of  Humanity  or  Latin,  taking  with 
him  his  "  dux,"  John  Brown  Patterson,  the  most  promising 
student  of  his  day,  who  became  warmly  attached  to  Wilson. 
Inscriptions  on  missionary  churches  and  university  founda- 
tion stones  in  the  East  prove  that  Wilson  retained  to  the 
last  all  the  graceful  Latinity  which  he  acquired  at  Lauder 
and  Edinburgh.  We  may  pass  over  the  Greek  professor, 
but  the  students  found  ample  atonement  in  the  Moral 
Philosophy  class  of  Professor  Wilson,  whose  whirlwind  of 
rhetoric  twenty-one  Tory  and  eleven  Whig  patrons  of  the 
chair  had  preferred  to  the  massive  erudition  and  the  philoso- 
phical power  of  him  who  became  our  modern  Aristotle — 
Sir  William  Hamilton.  Had  the  Lauder  student  come  under 
the  spell  of  one  who  did  not  become  professor  of  Metaphysics 
for  some  years  afterwards,  even  he  must  have  gained  a  more 
analytic  and  expository  power  in  those  investigations  of  the 
hoary  philosophies  of  Yedist  and  Buddhist,  Zoroastrian  and 
Soofee,  by  which  he  did  much  to  shake  the  grim  idolatries 
and  subtle  pantheism  of  southern  and  western  Asia.  But  he 
enjoyed  what  was  of  equal  value  for  such  a  purpose  at  that 
time, — the  physical  researches  of  Sir  John  Leslie,  Play  fair's 
successor  in  the  chair  of  Natural  Philosophy.  There  he  stood 
in  the  front  rank,  a  significant  fact,  for  it  is  through  the  clay 
of  the  physical  error  worked  up  with  the  iron  of  speculative 
falsehood  in  the  systems  of  the  East,  that  they  are  first  to 
be  shaken  and  shattered.  What  of  mathematical  principles, 
physical  law,  and  the  natural  sciences  John  Wilson  then  mas- 
tered, he  developed  and  applied  all  through  his  conflicts  with 


1824.]  THE  CLOSE  OF  A  DREARY  TIME.  17 

the  defenders  of  the  Oriental  faiths,  and  in  his  discourses  and 
writings,  as  the  first  scholar  of  "Western  India.  In  geology, 
in  botany,  in  the  more  recondite  region  of  archaeology,  he 
kept  pace  with  the  most  recent  researches,  to  which,  in  his 
own  province,  he  largely  contributed.  Nature  came  second 
only  to  the  divine  Word,  and  worked  harmoniously  along 
with  it  in  his  whole  missionary  career. 

The  same  cannot  be  asserted  of  the  Theological  Faculty  of 
the  University  of  Edinburgh  at  that  period.  It  was  the  dreary 
time,  just  before,  in  1828 — too  late  for  Wilson — Thomas 
Chalmers  was  transferred  from  St.  Andrews,  where  he  had 
brought  to  the  birth  of  a  more  spiritual  and  intellectual  life 
men  like  Eobert  Nesbit,  soon  to  precede  Wilson  to  Bombay ; 
and  Alexander  Duff,  William  S.  Mackay,  and  David  Ewart, 
destined  to  follow  him,  but  to  Calcutta.  The  divinity  Pro- 
fessors were  also  parish  ministers,  who  droned  through  their 
lectures  as  through  their  sermons,  while  their  hearers  slept 
or  attended  to  their  own  private  affairs.  The  pamphlets  of 
these  days,  on  Sir  John  Leslie's  case  for  instance,  make  strange 
revelations  of  academic  ineptitude  and  ecclesiastical  incompe- 
tence, to  those  who  care  to  rake  among  them.  But  for  the 
dawn  of  the  Evangelical  party  in  the  pulpits  of  Gordon  in  the 
New  North  Church,  Andrew  Thomson  in  St.  George's,  and 
Henry  Grey,  and  of  Thomas  M'Crie,  outside  of  the  kirk,  the 
men  of  the  next  generation  would  have  been  worse  than  their 
fathers.  John  Wilson,  unlike  him  who  was  afterwards  Prin- 
cipal Cunningham,  had  taken  with  him  to  the  Divinity  Hall 
the  living  power  which  had  first  moved  his  childish  heart, 
when,  awestruck,  he  had  seen  it  visibly  in  his  grandfather's 
evening  prayers.  Now,  on  llth  December  1824,  on  entering 
his  twenty-first  year,  he  began  that  "review  of  the  Lord's 
gracious  dealings  with  my  soul,"  already  referred  to. 

"  This  day  I  have  completed  my  twentieth  year,  God  teach 
me  to  improve  the  fleeting  moments  of  my  existence.     As 

c 


18  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1324. 

bought  with  a  price,  even  with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ, 
may  I  devote  myself  wholly — soul,  body,  and  spirit — to  declare 
and  show  forth  thy  glory  to  my  sinful  brethren  of  mankind." 
About  this  time  he  seems  to  have  formally  signed  a  "  solemn 
profession,  dedication,  and  engagement"  of  himself  to  God. 
The  time-stained  paper  is  without  date,  and  is  headed,  in 
pencil  of  a  much  later  year  evidently,  "  Form,  I  think,  taken 
from  Willison."  With  it  are  two  similar  deeds  of  holiest  con- 
secration, in  which,  on  1st  January  1759,  and  again  at  Elgin 
on  llth  May  1785,  an  ancestor  of  his  first  wife,  James  Hay, 
son  of  the  Eev.  Dr.  James  Hay,  vowed  himself  to  the  Lord. 
In  both  cases  each  page,  and  in  some  instances  paragraph,  is 
signed  by  the  covenanting  person.  All  through  his  life  of 
three  score  and  ten,  openly,  as  in  those  most  private  papers 
which  mark  his  energising  in  soul,  we  see  how  John  Wilson 
kept  the  covenant  thus  made  in  the  fervour  of  a  first  love,  and 
the  comparative  innocence  of  an  early  freedom  from  the  power 
of  the  world.  At  college  as  at  school,  of  full  age  as  when  a 
child  among  his  companions,  he  is  still  "  the  priest "  in  the 
highest  sense — the  priest  unto  God.  From  his  Journal  at 
this  time  we  take  these  further  extracts.  He  is  in  the  Stow 
Manse,  in  that  first  year  of  his  theological  studies,  which 
the  loose  regulations  of  those  days  allowed  students  to  spend 
out  of  college  if  they  wrote  the  necessary  exercises.  His 
heart  is  set  on  missionary  work,  it  will  be  observed.  He  writes 
to  a  friend  at  this  time, "  The  Memoirs  of  David  Brainerd 
and  Henry  Martyn  give  me  particular  pleasure  "  : — 

"  Tuesday,  14th  December  1824. — This  day  was  cheered  by 
the  hope  that  I  had  more  success  in  teaching  than  usual. 
Read  part  of  the  life  of  the  Eev.  David  Brainerd.  What  an 
example  of  the  power  of  divine  truth  !  How  many  his  trials  ! 
how  great  his  labours !  0  Lord,  fill  my  soul  with  a  lowly 
opinion  of  myself,  and  sanctify  and  prepare  rne  for  the  same 
work  hi  which  he  was  engaged." 


1825.]  SEAKCHINGS  OF  HEART.  19 

"  Thursday,  16th. — The  servants  in  the  manse  asked  me 
to  permit  them  to  come  into  my  room  to  join  with  me  in 
evening  prayers.  Gave  them  permission,  with  the  hope  that 
they  might  derive,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  some  benefit  from 
this.  Bead  in  the  Greek  Testament,  in  the  evening,  an  ac- 
count of  the  fall  of  Babylon." 

"  Friday,  24:th. — This  day  had  some  very  edifying  conver- 
sation with  Alexander  Kelly,  shepherd  to  the  burgh  of  Lauder. 
Admired  his  knowledge  and  the  soundness  of  his  views  of 
divine  truth.  Had  some  sweet  communion  in  evening 
prayer." 

"  Saturday,  25£A.— This  day  sent  a  copy  of  my  tract  to  my 
former  pupil,  Master  John  N.  Bose,  and  a  letter  on  the  im- 
portance of  religion.  In  the  evening  an  order  arrived  from 
General  Walker,  governor  of  St.  Helena,  for  Mr.  Cormack  to 
purchase  on  his  account  five  guineas'  worth  of  books  for  the 
congregational  library." 

"  Tuesday,  28th. — Bejoiced  to  hear  of  the  great  progress  of 
divine  truth  from  the  Monthly  Extracts  of  the  Correspondence 
of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  What  astonishing 
effects  have,  by  the  blessing  of  the  spirit  of  God,  been  produced 
by  the  simple  reading  of  the  Word  of  God !  Moral  miracles 
are  daily  attesting  the  truth  of  Christianity." 

"  Friday,  31st. — This  day  brings  another  year  to  a  close. 
Can  I  dare  to  appear  before  the  Lord  and  ask  him  to  deal 
with  me  according  to  my  doings  in  the  year  which  is  past  ? 
No ;  my  conscience  itself  condemns  me.  It  tells  me  that  in 
myself  I  am  poor,  and  miserable,  and  blind,  and  naked.  It 
reminds  me  that  much  of  the  year  which  is  ready  to  depart 
was  spent  in  the  service  of  Satan ;  in  the  cherishing  of  my 
lusts;  in  the  gratification  of  my  evil  nature,  and  in  seeking 
my  own  destruction." 

"  Thursday,  6th  January  1825.  —  Bead  part  of  Cecil's 
Remains.  Felt  unhappy  in  the  afternoon  from  not  having 


20  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1825. 

had  much  communion  with  God  during  the  course  of  the  day. 
May  I  always  feel  unhappy  when  I  do  not  set  the  Lord  con- 
tinually before  me.  May  I  ever  seek  to  enjoy  the  light  of  his 
countenance,  for  when  he  causes  this  to  shine  upon  me  I  am 
rich  and  comfortable.  If  I  had  every  earthly  comfort  at  my 
command  they  could  do  nothing  to  cheer  my  mind  and  sup- 
port my  soul.  May  I  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness, 
and  be  filled  with  the  good  things  of  the  kingdom  of  God." 

"From  the  *7th  to  the  13th  January. — In  a  very  sinful 
frame  of  mind.  0  Lord,  look  upon  me  in  the  face  of  Christ 
Jesus." 

"  Wednesday,  26th. — This  day  the  quarterly  meeting  of 
the  Stow  Auxiliary  Bible  Society  was  held ;  few  present.  In 
collecting  for  this  institution  on  some  preceding  days,  found 
most  people  generally  approving  of  the  objects  of  the  Bible 
Society,  but  often  not  disposed  to  assist  it  by  any  of  that  sub- 
stance which  they  have  received  as  talents  to  be  accounted 
for  to  the  Lord,  the  giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift.  I 
remember,  however,  that  an  aged  woman  said  to  me  that  she 
would  rather  in  some  measure  starve  her  body  than  not  con- 
tribute something  to  the  glorious  cause  of  circulating  the  word 
of  God  upon  earth." 

"Friday,  28th. — Commenced  reading  the  Epistle  to  the 
Eomans  in  the  Greek  Testament.  How  dreadful  is  the 
condition  of  those  whom  the  Lord  gives  up  to  the  following  of 
their  own  natural  propensities !  How  awful  are  those  feelings 
which  the  human  mind  in  its  depravity  loves  to  entertain ! 
May  my  soul  be  thoroughly  washed  from  all  iniquity." 

"  Monday  and  Tuesday,  1st  and  2d  February. — Delighted 
with  good  news  from  near  and  far  countries.  Kead  with  great 
pleasure  the  London  Missionary  Chronicle  and  Scottish  Mission- 
ary Register.  The  Lord  is  doing  great  things  at  home  and 
abroad." 

"Saturday,  6th. — This  day  visited  my  dear  parents  and 


1825.]  DEDICATES  HIMSELF  TO  MISSIONARY  WORK.  21 

friends  at  Lander.  Mentioned  to  them  my  intention  of  soon 
offering  myself  as  a  missionary  candidate  to  the  Scottish  Mis- 
sionary Society,  and  oh !  what  a  burst  of  affection  did  I  wit- 
ness from  my  dear  mother.  Never  will  I  forget  what  occurred 
this  evening.  She  told  me  that  at  present  she  thought  the 
trial  of  parting  with  me,  if  I  should  leave  her,  would  be  more 
hard  to  bear  than  my  death.  When  I  saw  her  in  her  tears 
I  cried  unto  God  that  he  would  send  comfort  to  her  mind,  and 
that  he  would  make  this  affair  issue  in  his  glory  and  our  good. 
I  entreated  my  mother  to  leave  the  matter  to  the  Lord's  dis- 
posal ;  and  I  told  her  that  I  would  not  think  of  leaving  her  if 
the  Lord  should  not  make  my  way  plain  for  me,  but  that  at 
present  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  offer  my  services  to  the 
Society.  She  then  embraced  me  and  seemed  more  calm.  My 
father  said  little  to  us  on  the  subject,  but  seemed  to  be  in  deep 
thought.  In  the  course  of  the  evening  the  words  '  he  that 
saveth  his  life  shall  lose  it/  and  'he  that  loveth  father  or 
mother  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me/  came  home  to  my 
mind,  and  kept  me  from  making  any  promise  of  drawing  back" 
in  my  resolutions  to  preach  the  gospel,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
to  the  heathen  world.  0  Lord,  do  thou,  who  hast  the  hearts 
of  all  men  in  thy  hands,  and  who  turnest  them  according  to 
thy  pleasure,  grant  that  my  parents,  with  faith  in  thy  word 
and  promises,  may  joyfully  commit  rne  in  all  things  to  thy 
disposal,  and  may  I  willingly  obey  thy  will  in  all  things,  for 
Christ's  sake,  Amen." 

With  this  record  of  a  scene  often  repeated  since,  when  the 
best  and  bravest  of  our  youth  have  gone  forth  to  an  Indian 
career,  the  Journal  closes  for  that  year.  When  Eobert  Nesbit 
had  determined  to  do  the  same,  he  could  not  tell  his  mother, 
but  asked  Wilson  to  break  the  tidings  for  him.  Wilson  lost 
no  time  in  offering  himself  to  the  directors  of  the  Scottish 
Missionary  Society  in  the  twenty-first  year  of  his  age.  At 
the  beginning  of  his  second  divinity  session  in  November  he  was 


22  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1826. 

formally  received  into  the  seminary,  as  it  was  called,  at  18  St. 
John  Street,  He  became  an  inmate  of  the  family  of  the  Rev. 
W.  Brown,  M.D.,  the  Secretary,  and  there  spent  the  three  suc- 
ceeding years  till  his  departure  for  India.  At  College  he 
went  through  the  regular  course  of  study  and  examination  for 
the  ministry  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  His  Journal  records 
his  reading,  his  intercourse  with  his  fellows,  his  self-abasement 
in  the  sight  of  God  and  of  his  own  conscience,  and  his  breath- 
ings after  a  more  perfect  communion  with  the  Father  in  the 
Son.  The  Professor  who  influenced  him  most  was  Principal 
Lee l  at  a  later  date,  and  also  Dr.  Brunton,  who  taught 
Hebrew,  and  with  whom,  as  Convener  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Committee  for  many  years  afterwards,  he  corre- 
sponded by  every  mail.  Dr.  Meiklejohn  pretended  to  teach 
Church  History  with  an  efficiency  which  has  been  measured 
by  his  habit  of  yawning  when  praying  in  public.  As  to  the 
Professor  of  Systematic  Theology,  let  this  transcript  from  a 
venerable  yellow  scrap  of  torn  paper,  marked  in  red  ink  more 
than  once  by  Dr.  Wilson  with  the  word  "  keep,"  tell  what  he 
was: — 

"EDINBURGH  COLLEGE,  Monday,  27th  November  1826. 

"  At  a  general  meeting  of  the  theological  students  attending  the 
University,  the  following  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted  : — 
1st.  That  a  deputation  should  be  appointed  to  wait  on  the  Rev.  Dr. 
William  Eitchie,  S.S.T.P.,  to  inform  him,  with  the  greatest  tenderness 
and  respect,  that,  on  account  of  the  weakness  of  his  voice,  his  lectures 
when  read  by  him  are  quite  inaudible  by  the  students,  and  to  request 
of  him  to  take  into  consideration  the  propriety  of  appointing  a  substi- 
tute. 2d.  That  Messrs.  James  Anderson  and  L.  H.  Irving  should  form 
the  deputation,  and  report  the  result  of  their  visit  to  a  general  meeting, 
to  be  held  to-morrow  at  2  o'clock  P.M.  JOHN  WILSON,  Chairman" 

1  Writing  to  a  friend  in  December  1827,  Wilson  says  : — "Dr.  Lee  pro- 
ceeds admirably  in  the  Hall.  Sound  in  the  faith  ;  entertaining  aji  ardent 
affection  for  preaching  sermons,  and  enlightened  in  his  judgment ;  by  close 
study,  extensive  reading,  and  accurate  thinking,  he  is  well  qualified  to  fill  the 
chair  of  Bollock  and  of  Leighton." 


1826.]  REBELLION  OF  THE  DIVINITY  STUDENTS.  23 

"  Minutes  of  a  General  Meeting  of  the  Theological  Students  attend- 
ing the  University  of  Edinburgh,  called  in  order  to  receive  the  report 
of  the  deputation  appointed  to  wait  on  the  Rev.  Dr.  Win.  Ritchie. 

"  LADY  TESTER'S  CHURCH,  Edinburgh,  28£/t  November  1826. 

"  Mr.  William  Cunningham  having  been  called  to  the  chair,  and 
the  minutes  of  the  former  meeting  having  been  read  and  approved  of, 
the  deputation  appointed  to  wait  on  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ritchie  stated  that, 
having  transmitted  to  him  the  minutes  of  the  former  meeting  enclosed 
in  a  most  respectful  letter,  the  Rev.  Dr.  intimated  to  them  his  decided 
refusal  to  listen  to  any  such  application.  The  students  having  con- 
sidered and  approved  of  the  conduct  of  the  deputation,  resolved  (duobus 
contradicentibus)  that  it  was  not  competent  for  them  to  proceed  to  any 
ulterior  measures  at  present,  except  simply  to  lay  before  the  Town 
Council  and  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh  the  minutes  of  both  meetings, 
and  directed  the  Secretary  accordingly  to  transmit  copies  of  both  to  the 
Right  Hon.  the  Lord  Provost  and  the  Reverend  the  Moderator  of  the 
Presbytery.  (Signed)  I  WM.  CUNNINGHAM,  Chairman." 

Thus  strangely  were  associated  the  future  grave,  judi- 
cious, and  academic  Vice-Chancellor  of  the.  University  of 
Bombay,  and  the  erudite  Principal  of  the  New  College,  both 
to  be  Moderators  of  the  General  Assembly  in  their  time.  And 
the  work  they  did,  or  tried  to  do,  is  one  which  it  had  been 
well  for  more  university  faculties  and  colleges  than  that  of 
theology  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  then  and  since,  if 
there  were  students  wise  enough  to  repeat,  in  the  interests  of 
common  honesty  and  sound  scholarship.  Scotland  and  its 
academic  institutions,  national  and  non-national,  have  always 
been  too  poor  to  pension  the  old,  or  quietly  get  rid  of  the  in- 
competent teachers,  with  whom  the  abuses  of  patronage  or  of 
popular  election  have  saddled  successive  generations  of  stu- 
dents. But  the  story  is  not  at  an  end,  though  we  have  to  go 
elsewhere  for  the  close.  A  fellow-student  in  the  Arts'  classes, 
Mr.  D.  Eisdaile,  who  was  afterwards  professor  in  the  Govern- 
ment College  at  Poona,  thus  writes  : — "  Dr.  Eitchie  had  been 
for  a  few  sessions  in  a  state  of  dotage,  quite  unable  to  keep 


24 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1826. 


order  in  the  class — very  deaf  and  very  blind,  but  clinging  hard 
to  his  professorship.  The  attendance  had  been  for  two  or 
three  years  a  mockery  and  a  delusion,  and  the  doctor's  lectur- 
ing an  absurdity — not  listened  to,  not  even  heard.  The  only 
circumstance  impressed  on  my  memory  is,  hearing  Dr.  Wilson 
tell  me  that,  when  the  body  of  students  presented  their  request 
to  the  old  man  in  his  house  in  Argyle  Square  that  he  would 
give  up,  when  he  saw  John  Wilson  among  them,  he  remon- 
strated with  him,  saying  '  I  never  thought,  Mr.  Wilson,  that 
you  would  have  appeared  in  the  ranks  of  my  enemies.'  In 
the  early  part  of  his  college  career  I  do  not  think  he  had  many 
friends  and  acquaintances  in  Edinburgh,  so  that  his  attach- 
ment was  the  warmer  to  one  like  myself,  to  whom  he  could 
speak  freely  and  reveal  his  inmost  thoughts.  I  was  accord- 
ingly made  the  depository  of  his  dealings  with  the  Press  in 
that  fourth  year  of  his  college  course,  when  he  printed  a  ser- 
mon on  Missions,  in  which  I  helped  him  by  taking  a  number 
of  copies.  I  recollect  wondering  at  this  early  display  of  his 
penchant  for  putting  his  thoughts  in  print,  which  pervaded 
his  whole  life,  and  of  which  the  world  has  reaped  the  benefit." 
With  all  his  gentleness,  and  often  all  the  more  effectually 
because  of  his  almost  sensitively  chivalrous  bearing,  John 
Wilson  was  the  enemy  of  incompetence  and  idleness,  which 
injured  his  Master's  work.  In  the  previous  session  he  had 
shown  his  terrible  earnestness  by  founding  "  The  Edinburgh 
Association  of  Theological  Students  in  aid  of  the  Diffusion  of 
Christian  Knowledge."  In  1825,  under  the  date  Thursday, 
22d  December,  this  remark  occurs  in  his  journal — "  This  has 
been  one  of  the  happiest  days  of  my  life.  About  three  weeks 
ago  I  proposed  to  Mr.  John  T.  Brown  that  we  should  make 
some  exertions  for  the  purpose  of  instituting  an  association  of 
the  theological  students  for  aiding  the  diffusion  of  the  Gospel. 
This  object,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  to  whose  name  be  the 
praise,  we  were  enabled  to  accomplish  this  day."  Divided 


1826.]     FOUNDS  THE  STUDENTS'  MISSIONARY  ASSOCIATION.         25" 

into  two  by  the  Disruption  of  the  Established  Church  in 
1843,  that  Association  has  ever  since  been  the  fruitful  nursery 
of  missionaries,  alike  in  the  University  and  in  the  New  Col- 
lege of  Edinburgh.  Of  the  120  regular  students  in  the  Faculty 
of  Theology  at  that  time,  more  than  sixty  became  members. 
Wilson  was  the  secretary,  as  he  had  been  the  founder,  and 
read  the  first  essay.  Mr.  Thomas  Pitcairn,  afterwards  clerk 
of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Established  and  then  the 
Free  Church,  was  first  president,  with  John  J.  Bonar,  subse- 
quently of  Greenock,  and  David  Eunciman  of  Glasgow,  as 
vice-presidents.  The  committee  were  John  G.  Lorimer,  John 
B.  Patterson,  A.  Matheson,  G.  Galloway,  J.  Dunlop,  J.  Gar- 
diner, Gilbert  Laing,  and  William  Cunningham,  with  John  T. 
Brown  as  treasurer.  The  name  of  David  Thorburn  appears 
as  seconding  the  motion  which  called  the  Association  into 
existence.  For  the  first  three  years  Wilson  was  its  life. 
When  he  left  it  for  India  the  members  sent  forth  their  foun- 
der with  prayers  and  benedictions,  and  a  gift  of  memorial 
volumes.  For  years  after  he  continued  to  correspond  with  it 
as  a  means  of  stimulating  young  theologians  to  give  them- 
selves to  India.  When  he  paid  his  farewell  visit  to  Scot- 
land in  1870  his  delight  was  to  address  not  only  the  New 
College  Society,  but  the  old  Association  in  the  old  rooms 
in  the  University.  He  organised  a  library ;  he  began  a  cor- 
respondence with  the  great  missionary  societies  then  in  exist- 
ence, that  the  students  might  be  fed  with  the  latest  intelligence 
from  foreign  lands ;  and  he  kept  up  a  series  of  circular  letters 
with  the  corresponding  students'  societies  of  St.  Andrews, 
Glasgow,  and  Aberdeen;  Belfast;  and  Princeton  in  the  United 
States ;  the  careful  drafts l  of  which  testify  to  the  zeal  with 
which  the  youth  of  twenty-one  worked. 

1  His  letters  to  Princeton  are  still  of  interest  as  vivid  and  accurate  pictures 
of  the  religious  and  ecclesiastical  condition  of  Scotland  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury ago  : — "  Our  country  has  been  long  celebrated  for  its  religious  privileges, 


26  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSOX.  [1827. 

A  fine  spirit  of  catholicity  marks  all  the  communica- 
tions of  the  secretary,  and  in  some  instances  he  bursts  out 
with  a  protest  against  the  creation  of  new  agencies  to  com- 
pete unnecessarily  with  those  already  at  work  Even  at  this 
time  he  seems  to  have  awoke  to  the  absurdity  and  the  waste 
involved  in  so  many  ecclesiastical  divisions,  as  he  afterwards 
did  more  painfully  when  in  the  front  of  heathenism.  His 
statistics  have  a  curious  interest  for  Scotland  now,  when  the 
seven  sections  of  presbyterianism  have  been  so  far  amalga- 
mated into  three,  and  the  number  of  ministers  has  been 
doubled  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  population,  although 
the  missionary  spirit  has  made  comparatively  less  progress. 

Privately,  John  Wilson  by  pen  and  voice  was  ever  point- 
ing the  abler  of  his  student  companions  to  the  mission  field, 
for  his  ideal  was  high.  His  communications  from  Eobert 
Nesbit  both  strengthened  his  own  determination  and  enabled 
him  to  combat  the  fears  of  his  fellows,  whose  mothers  held 

and  at  present  the  light  of  the  Lord  is  shining  in  the  midst  of  us.     There  are 
many  ministers  who  labour  for  the  good  of  the  souls  of  our  people,  and  there 
are  many  schools  for  instruction  open  to  all. 

Denomination.  Number  of  Ministers. 

Established  Church         .  .  .  .  .1191 

Reformed  Presbyterians  .  .  .  .  .  18 

United  Associate  Synod  .  .  .  .  .  308 

Relief  Synod        ......  85 

Associate  Synod .  .  .  .  .  .  12 

Original  Burgher  Associate  Synod  ...  32 

Constitutional  Presbytery  .  .  .  .  10 

Episcopalian  Communion  .  .  .  .  78 

Congregationalists  .....  79 

Baptists .......  about  20 

1833 

The  labours  of  these  ministers  are  aided  by  the  exertions  of  parochial 
schools  in  every  district  of  the  country,  and  by  various  religious  societies.  The 
Society  whose  exertions  have,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  proved  most  beneficial 
to  Scotland  is  "The  Society  in  Scotland  (incorporated  by  royal  charter)  for 
Propagating  Christian  Knowledge."  It  was  instituted  in  1701,  and  an  Act 
of  recommendation  in  its  favour  having  been  issued  by  the  General  Assembly, 
contributions  to  a  large  amount  were  soon  raised  for  its  support.  The  means 
which  it  uses  for  the  promotion  of  its  design  are  the  establishment  of  schools 


1828.]  JOHN  ELIOT  HIS  IDEAL.  27 

them  back.  He  published,  chiefly  for  such,  an  essay  on  the 
motives  and  encouragements  to  active  missionary  exertions. 
He  prepared,  and  issued  in  1828  anonymously,  a  little  work 
now  rarely  met  with,  but  which  did  good  service  in  its  day, 
The  Life  of  John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  of  the  Indians.  In 
that  he  traced  the  work  of  the  Puritan  Fathers  in  New 
England,  in  their  propagation  of  Christianity  among  the  Eed 
Indians.  Very  characteristic  of  his  own  future  policy  is  his 
quotation  of  Eliot's  words :  "  There  is  need  of  learning  in 
ministers  who  preach  to  Indians  much  more  than  to 
Englishmen  and  gracious  Christians,  for  these  had  sundry 
philosophical  questions,  which  some  knowledge  of  the  arts 
must  help  to  give  answers  to,  and  without  which  these  would 
not  have  been  satisfied.  Worse  than  Indian  ignorance  hath 
blinded  their  eyes  that  renounce  learning  as  an  enemy  to  the 
gospel."  All  Eliot's  scholarship  and  devotion  to  the  master- 
ing of  the  native  dialects  are  carefully  noted,  no  less  than  the 
humility  of  the  man  who  protested  against  the  application  to 

and  the  maintenance  of  catechists  and  missionaries.  The  quantity  of  good, 
both  temporal  and  spiritual,  resulting  from  its  labours  it  is  impossible  to  cal- 
culate. It  has  been  the  means  of  communicating  the  principles  of  education 
and  religious  knowledge  to  hundreds  of  thousands  in  our  Highlands  and  Islands. 
For  the  last  thirty  years  the  average  number  of  scholars  attending  its  schools 
has  been  15,000.  At  present  it  employs  12  missionaries  and  16  catechists. 
Since  the  year  1767  it  has  printed  and  distributed  upwards  of  50,000  copies 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures.  Important  and  beneficial  as  the  exertions  of  this 
Society  have  proved  to  the  population  of  our  Highlands,  they  have  not  been 
adequate  to  the  wants  of  our  northern  countrymen,  and  the  knowledge  of  this 
fact  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Gaelic  School  Society,  in  the  year  1811,  whose 
fundamental  principle  is  that  it  is  essential  for  every  man  to  read  the  word  of 
God  in  his  own  tongue.  This  Society  confines  its  attention  chiefly  to  the 
establishment  and  support  of  circulatory  schools,  and  its  success  has  been  very 
great.  In  the  report  for  1825  it  is  stated  that  the  total  number  of  schools 
maintained  through  the  year  was  83,  and  the  total  number  of  scholars  4674. 
Since  the  commencement  of  the  Society  the  number  of  books  it  has  circulated 
in  the  Highlands  and  Islands  may  be  estimated  at  about  100,000.  Of  this 
number  about  50,000  were  copies  of  the  Bible,  New  Testament,  and  Psalm 
Books.  The  inhabitants,  of  themselves,  encouraged  by  the  success  of  the 
Society  for  Propagating  Christian  Knowledge  and  the  Gaelic  School  Society, 
founded  another  education  society  at  Inverness  in  the  year  1818." 


28 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1828. 


himself  of  the  pre-eminent  title  of  "  The  Indian  Evangelist." 
The  missionary  student  could  not  have  set  before  himself  a 
better  ideal  of  the  kind  than  that  of  the  acute  Cambridge 
scholar,  whose  eighty-six  years  of  self-sacrifice  Cotton  Mather 
has  chronicled.  When,  towards  the  close  of  his  university 
studies  in  March  1828,  John  Wilson  received  the  farewell 
eulogies  of  the  students,  as  expressed  by  Pitcairn  and  Cun- 
ningham, John  Brown  Patterson  and  David  Thorburn,  of  whom 
the  last  alone  survives,  his  reply  was  an  address  which  rang 
with  new  appeals  to  the  friends  of  his  youth,  based  on  the 
words  just  quoted,  and  on  this  prediction  of  the  same  writer, 
in  his  "Essays  To  Do  Good,"  a  century  before — "North 
Britain  will  be  distinguished  by  irradiations  from  heaven 
upon  it  of  such  a  tendency  (to  propagate  Christianity).  There 
will  be  found  a  set  of  excellent  men  in  that  reformed  and 
renowned  Church  of  Scotland,  with  whom  the  most  refined 
and  extensive  essays  to  do  good  will  become  so  natural  that 
the  whole  world  will  fare  the  better  for  them."  We  who 
look  back  on  history  may  see  the  anticipation  partially 
fulfilled  in  the  movement  which  gave  Wilson,  Duff,  and 
their  colleagues  to  India,  Morrison  to  China,  and  Livingstone 
and  Moffat  to  Africa.  These  are  the  words  which  the  young 
Wilson  left  behind  him  as  his  legacy  to  the  students  of  the 
University  of  Edinburgh — how  have  they  met  them  ? 

" '  The  work  of  preaching  the  gospel  in  foreign  lands  is 
attended  with  trials,  dangers,  and  sacrifices  ! '  Have  we  for- 
gotten !  where  is  now  the  promise  of  Christ,  '  Lo  !  I  am  with 
you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world '  ?  How  is  that 
hundred-fold  to  be  obtained  and  enjoyed  which  is  promised 
to  those  who  forsake  houses,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father, 
or  mother,  for  Christ's  sake?  Where  is  faith  in  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  can  view  the  difficulties  of 
the  Christian  warfare  as  calculated  to  render  the  consolations 
of  the  gospel  precious  to  the  soul  in  every  circumstance  ? 


1828.]         FAREWELL  APPEAL  TO  HIS  FELLOW-STUDENTS.  29 

Is  it  probable  that  dependence  on  the  grace  of  God  will  not 
be  exercised  by  the  Christian  when  he  must  feel  that  vain  is 
the  help  of  man,  that  success  must  be  the  result  of  the  divine 
application  of  the  word,  and  that  he  is  in  a  great  measure 
deprived  of  those  sources  of  earthly  enjoyment  which,  from 
the  corruption  of  human  nature,  are  frequently  made  the 
occasions  of  sin  ? 

" '  The  work  of  missions  is  difficult.'  But  time  is  short. 
Soon  shall  we  be  freed  from  all  our  toils,  and  anxieties,  and 
griefs,  and  disappointments ;  and  if  we  suffer  with  Christ  we 
shall  also  reign  with  Him.  '  The  work  of  missions  is  attended 
with  difficulties,  trials,  and  dangers!'  Spirits  of  Eliot  and 
Brainerd,  Martyn,  and  Fisk,  and  Hall,  do  you  regret  that  for 
the  promotion  of  its  interests  you  left  the  lands  of  your 
fathers  and  your  youth,  and  laboured  and  died  in  a  foreign 
clime  ?  No ;  you  declared  that,  when  engaged  in  it  you  were 
happy ; — that,  when  you  reviewed  your  labours  in  connection 
with  it,  you  were  ashamed  that  you  had  not  devoted  yourself 
to  its  interests  with  more  zeal  and  self-denial; — and  that, 
when  entering  the  dark  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  you 
'  saw  no  trials,  no  sacrifices,  nothing  but  sins  and  mercies.' 
Since  you  joined  the  glorious  band  of  witnesses  to  the  truth 
you  have  seen  and  felt  more  of  its  importance,  and  your 
testimony  respecting  it  is,  that  eternity  can  only  sufficiently 
reveal  its  character.  You  feel  that  is  the  glory  of  the  song  of 
Moses  and  the  Lamb,  that  it  is  sung  by  people  of  every 
kindred  and  country  and  tongue  and  nation ;  and  if  you  were 
permitted  again  to  visit  this  world  you  would  fly,  like  the 
angel  of  the  Apocalypse,  to  preach  the  gospel  to  all  that 
dwell  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  In  sincerity  and  humility  of 
soul  let  us  say,  '  Thy  vows  are  upon  us,  0  God,  we  will  render 
praises  unto  Thee.' " 

The  young  evangelist  had  a  right  to  use  such  language, 
for  had  he  not  given  himself  ?  These  were  days  when  India, 


30  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1828. 

little  known  still  in  the  land  that  rules  it,  was  less  known 
than  it  had  been  in  the  previous  generation  which  had  seen 
Warren  Hastings  impeached,  and  burghs  bought  and  sold  by 
Anglo-Indian  Nawabs.  The  dawn  of  knowledge  and  zeal 
was  not  to  rise  for  five  years  yet,  with  the  Charter  which 
really  opened  India  in  1833.  Then  such  an  incident  as  the 
following  wa§  only  too  truly  typical :  Dr.  Wilson  had  been 
meanwhile  licensed  to  preach  by  his  native  Presbytery  of 
Lauder ;  and,  after  some  difficulty  caused  by  the  adherence 
of  the  "  moderates  "  to  a  routine  which  did  not  contemplate 
missions  to  non-Christian  lands,  he  had  been  ordained  on  "  a 
request  in  his  own  name,  and  in  the  name  of  the  directors  of 
the  Scottish  Missionary  Society.  During  the  first  summer 
after  receiving  license  he  paid  two  visits  to  the  Manse  at 
Langton.  On  the  first  occasion  he  delivered  an  impressive 
discourse  on  Paul's  address  at  Mars'  Hill.  During  the 
evening  of  that  Sabbath  the  medical  attendant  came  to  see 
some  member  of  the  family,  and  after  the  visit  joined  the 
others  in  the  drawing-room.  The  subject  of  Missions  to  India 
was  introduced,  and  as  the  doctor  had  been  in  the  East  he 
took  part,  expressing  strongly  the  opinion  that  it  was  utterly 
hopeless  to  attempt  to  convert  the  natives  of  India  to  Chris- 
tianity. "  I  remember,"  writes  Mr.  Brown,  "  the  flush  which 
came  on  Dr.  Wilson's  face  when  he  eagerly  took  up  the 
question,  replying  to  the  objections  which  had  been  advanced, 
and  dwelling  on  the  power  of  the  Gospel  to  enlighten  those 
that  were  in  darkness.  The  doctor  soon  changed  the  subject." 
At  a  tune  when  medical  missions  were  unknown,  and 
eight  years  before  David  Livingstone  had  turned  from  cotton- 
spinning  to  be  a  licentiate  of  the  Faculty  of  Physicians  in 
Glasgow,  with  the  frustrated  hope  of  becoming  a  missionary 
in  China,  John  Wilson  would  not  consider  his  preparation 
for  India  complete  until  he  had  studied  medicine.  He  had 
taken  a  high  place  in  the  classes  of  Physical  and  Xatural 


1828.]  ORDAINED  AND  MARRIED.  31 

Science.  In  1827-8  he  passed  through  classes  for  Anatomy, 
Surgery,  and  the  Practice  of  Physic.  Many  a  time  afterwards, 
in  the  jungles  of  Western  India  and  the  ghauts  or  ravines  of 
its  hills,  did  he  find  his  knowledge  of  the  art  of  healing  a 
blessing  to  the  wild  tribes  and  simple  peasantry.  Much  of 
his  own  endurance  is  to  be  ascribed  to  such  knowledge, 
although  in  Bombay  itself  physicians  in  and  out  of  the  service 
were  ever  his  most  attached  friends. 

But  one  qualification  seemed  still  wanting  to  make  the  youth 
of  twenty-three,  whom,  just  half  a  century  ago,  on  Midsummer's 
Day  1828,  by  the  imposition  of  hands,  the  Presbytery  did 
solemnly  ordain  and  set  apart  to  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry, 
a  fully-equipped  missionary.  So  new  was  the  whole  subject  of 
Christianising  foreign  lands  at  that  time,  that  every  instance  of 
a  Protestant  evangelist  going  forth  raised  the  question  whether 
he  ought  to  be  married.  On  this  ecclesiastical  authorities 
were  divided.  The  Scottish  Missionary  Society  had  assigned 
India  as  the  country  of  his  labours,  a  fact  thus  recorded  in  his 
Journal : — "  0  Lord,  Thou  hast  graciously  heard  my  prayers 
in  this  respect.  Do  thou  prepare  me  for  preaching  Christ 
crucified  with  love  and  with  power ;  do  Thou  provide  for  me, 
if  agreeable  to  Thy  will,  a  suitable  partner  of  my  lot ;  one 
who  will  well  encourage  me  and  labour  with  me  in  Thy  work. 
Do  Thou,  in  Thy  good  time,  convey  me  in  safety  to  the  place 
of  my  destination;  do  Thou  open  up  for  me  a  wide  and 
effectual  door  of  utterance;  do  Thou  preserve  my  life  for 
usefulness;  and  do  Thou  make  me  successful  in  winning 
souls  to  Christ."  "  I  rejoice  when  I  think,"  he  wrote  to  a 
friend,  "  that  I  shall  live,  and  labour,  and  die  in  India."  On 
the  18th  December  1827,  he  had  written  to  his  father  and 
mother :  "  Dr.  Brown  intends  to  prepare  the  articles  which  I 
am  to  take  with  me  to  India.  He  asked  me  to-night  if  I 
intended  to  marry  ;  but  I  was  not  able  to  give  him  an  answer. 
If  I  could  get  a  suitable  partner  now  I  would  have  no  hesita- 


32  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1828. 

tion  in  marrying  ;  but  it  is  a  matter  of  extreme  difficulty  to 
find  a  young  lady  with  the  piety,  zeal,  talents,  and  education 
which  the  work  I  have  in  view  requires."  He  was  soon  after 
introduced  to  the  family  of  the  Eev.  Kenneth  Bayne  of 
Greenock,  who,  on  their  father's  death,  had  settled  in  22 
Comely  Bank,  a  northern  suburb  of  Edinburgh.  The  last 
entry  in  his  Journal  records  the  triumphant  joy  of  one  of 
the  daughters  in  the  prospect  of  death.  Two  more  of  the 
sisters  met  with  a  sad  death  by  drowning,  several  years  after- 
wards, and  another  survived  him  a  short  time.  The  other 
three  formed  a  remarkable  group  of  accomplished,  cultivated, 
and  zealous  women,  who  gave  their  lives  for  India,  as  the 
pioneers  of  female  education.  Margaret,  the  eldest,  had 
added  to  the  ordinary  teaching  a  course  of  study  in  the  uni- 
versity city  of  Aberdeen.  She  proved  equally  facile  in  the 
exposition  of  the  faiths  of  the  East,  in  the  mastery  of  the 
languages  of  Western  India,  in  the  organisation  of  native 
female  schools,  and  in  the  writing  of  graceful  verse,  while  she 
was  ever  the  gentle  wife  and  the  fond  mother,  during  the 
too  brief  six  years  of  her  life  in  Bombay.  When  she  con- 
sented to  share  the  then  dreaded  toils  of  an  Indian  evangel- 
ist's life  with  John  Wilson,  she  at  once  doubled  his  efficiency. 
In  the  simple  Scottish  fashion  the  newly  ordained  mis- 
sionary was  married  to  Margaret  Bayne,  by  her  minister  Dr. 
Andrew  Thomson,  of  St.  George's,  on  the  12th  August  1828. 
These  were  busy  months  for  both,  with  the  prospect  of  a  Cape 
voyage,  and  the  probability  of  life-long  farewells.  Incessant 
preaching  and  missionary  addresses  kept  him  ever  about  his 
Father's  business.  To  this  day  the  few  old  folks  who  remember 
it  tell,  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  of  his  farewell  sermon  in  the 
quaint  pulpit  of  the  cruciform  kirk  of  Lauder.1  The  bailies 

1  Here  that  other  great  missionary,  in  the  sense  of  being  the  warmest 
and  broadest  friend  foreign  missions  have  had  at  home,  Dr.  Norman  Macleod, 
used  to  preach  for  his  brother  afterwards.  In  the  adjoining  manse  he  wrote 
his  Wee  Dame.  We  shall  meet  him  with  Wilson  in  Bombay. 


1828.]    LATEST  OF  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY'S  PASSPORTS.        33 

and  council  of  the  royal  burgh,  conferred  on  the  lad  all  the 
honours  they  had  to  bestow,  by  giving  him,  on  formal  parch- 
ment, "  the  haill  immunities  and  privileges  of  a  burgess  royal 
and  freeman."  On  the  30th  August  the  missionary  and  his 
wife  sailed  from  the  ancient  port  of  Newhaven,  on  that 
heavenly  quest  on  which  no  knight  of  poetic  creation  or  fabled 
purity  ever  entered  with  more  self-sacrificing  ardour.  A 
thick  haze  hid  Edinburgh  from  their  sight..  After  some  days 
in  London,  and  Portsmouth  from  which  the  "  Sesostris  "  East 
Indiaman  sailed,  as  was  usual  then,  there  remained  only  the 
very  significant  duty  of  presenting  to  the  captain  the  Com- 
pany's permission  to  sail.  We  give  the  letter  of* the  Court  of 
Directors  in  full,  as  one  of  the  last  relics  of  that  Indian 
bureaucracy  which  Wilson  was  to  do  so  much  to  change,  till 
he  saw  it  almost  disappear. 

"EAST  INDIA  HOUSE,  27th  June  1828. 

"  SIR — I  have  laid  before  the  Court  of  Directors  of  the  East  India 
Company  your  letter  requesting,  on  behalf  of  the  Scottish  Missionary 
Society,  that  the  Reverend  John  "Wilson  may  be  allowed  to  proceed  as 
a  missionary  to  Bombay,  accompanied  by  the  young  lady  to  whom  he 
proposes  being  married  before  he  leaves  England.  In  reply,  I  am 
commanded  to  acquaint  you  that  the  Court  have  resolved  to  comply 
with  your  request,  so  far  as  regards  Mr.  Wilson,  upon  the  usual  terms 
and  conditions  ;  and  that,  when  the  necessary  engagement  has  been 
entered  into,  an  order  will  be  granted  for  his  reception  on  board  the 
ship  on  which  his  passage  may  have  been  taken.  I  am  further  to 
inform  you,  that  when  Mr.  "Wilson  shall  be  married  the  Court  will  be 
prepared  to  take  into  consideration  any  application  which,  he  may 
prefer  for  permission  for  his  wife  to  accompany  him. — I  am,. Sir,  your 
most  obedient  humble  servant,  J.  DART,  Secretary. 

"  Eeverend  WILLIAM  BROWN." 

The  long  voyage  of  five  months  was  not  made  shorter  by 
the  fact  that  the  captain  was  uncongenial  and  arbitrary,  and 
the  majority  of  the  passengers  had  no  sympathy  with  the 
missionary  and  his  wife  or  their  object.  But  even  there  the 
consistent  and  kindly  devotion  of  both  bore  fruit.  Opposition 

D 


34  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

nearly  disappeared  among  the  passengers ;  the  sailors,  whom 
he  influenced  for  good,  treated  Mr.  Wilson  very  tenderly  amid 
the  high  frolic  of  these  days  in  crossing  the  line.  The  attempt 
of  a  piratical  vessel  to  attack  the  ship,  and  a  storm  off  Table 
Bay,  further  relieved  the  monotony  of  a  Cape  passage.  Suffi- 
cient time  was  spent  at  Cape  Town — then,  and  till  the 
Mutiny  of  1857  led  to  a  change  in  the  furlough  rules,  a 
favourite  sanitarium  for  Anglo-Indians — to  enable  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Wilson  to  see  a  little  of  its  society,  and  to  visit  not  only 
Constantia,  of  wine-growing  fame,  but  the  Moravian  settle- 
ment of  Groenenkloof,  forty  miles  in  the  interior.  After  coast- 
ing Ceylon  Wilson  obtained  his  first  view  of  India  : — 

"On  the  1st  of  February  Cape  Comorin,  the  most  southern  point 
of  India,  appeared  in  sight,  and  my  feelings  were  consequently  of  a 
very  solemn  nature.  When  I  reflected  on  the  present  situation  of  the 
country,  and  on  my  prospects  connected  with  it,  I  was  constrained  to 
resort  to  the  throne  of  grace.  My  dear  Margaret  and  I  united  in  the 
prayer  that  God  might  prepare  us  for  all  the  trials  of  life,  and  support 
us  under  them  ;  that  He  might  ever  lift  on  us  the  light  of  His 
gracious  and  reconciled  countenance  ;  that  He  might  impart  to  us  the 
views,  feelings,  dispositions,  and  purposes  which  are  suitable  to  the 
sacred  work  which  we  have  in  view  ;  that  He  might  enable  us  to  pay 
the  vows  which  we  have  made  ;  that  He  might  grant  us  much  success 
in  the  work  of  converting  sinners  ;  and  that  He  might  impart  to  us 
the  rewards  of  grace  which  are  promised  to  those  who  turn  many  to 
righteousness.  The  character  of  the  day  (Sabbath)  was  suited  to  our 
exercises,  and  we  had  great  reason  to  thank  God  for  the  felicity  which 
we  experienced.  The  sentiments  of  our  hearts  were  not  expressed  in 
the  plaintive  language  of  the  Psalmist,  '  How  shall  we  sing  the  Lord's 
song  in  a  strange  land,'  but  in  that  of  the  joyful  resolution,  f  From  the 
end  of  the  earth  will  I  cry  unto  Thee,  when  my  heart  is  overwhelmed.' 
We  continued  for  thirteen  days  sailing  along  the  coasts  of  Malabar, 
Canara,  and  the  Konkan.  The  country  is  very  mountainous,  but  in 
its  appearance  very  unlike  my  native  Scotland.  The  towns  have  a 
wretched  appearance,  but  they  are  very  populous.  We  arrived  in 
Bombay  on  the  evening  of  the  14th  of  this  month,  and  next  morning 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Laurie,  one  of  the  ministers  of  the  Scotch  Church,  came 
with  a  boat  to  take  us  on  shore." 


CHAPTER  II. 

OLD  BOMBAY  AND  ITS  GOVERISTOES  TO  1829. 

The  Tyre  and  Alexandria  of  the  Far  East — Early  History  of  Bombay — 
Cromwell,  Charles  II.,  and  the  East  India  Company — The  first  Governors — 
A  Free  City  and  Asylum  for  the  Oppressed— Jonathan  Duncan — Mountstuart 
Elphinstone — Sir  John  Malcolm — Cotton  and  the  Cotton  Duties — India  and 
the  Bombay  Presidency  Statistics  in  1829 — The  Day  of  Small  Things  in 
Education  —  First  Protestant  Missionaries  in  Bombay — English  Society  in 
Western  India — Testimony  of  James  Forbes — John  Wilson's  First  Impres- 
sions of  Bombay. 


"  Jamque  ascendebant  collem,  qui  plurimus  urbi 
Imminet  adversasque  aspectat  desuper  arces. 
Miratur  molem  vEneas,  magalia  quondam  ; 
Miratur  portas,  strepitumque  et  strata  viarum. 
Instant  ardentes  Tyrii  :  pars  ducere  muros 
Molirique  arcem,  et  manibus  subvolvere  saxa  ; 
Pars  optare  locum  tecto,  et  concludere  sulco  ; 
Jura  magistratusque  legunt,  sanctumque  senatum  ; 
Hie  portus  alii  effodiunt ;  hie  alta  theatris 
Fundamenta  locant  alii,  immanesque  columnas 
Kupibus  excidunt,  scenis  decora  alta  futuris  : 
Qualis  apes  sestate  nova  per  florea  rura 

Exercet  sub  sole  labor." 

VIRGIL.— TJie 


"  Yes,  I  will  sing,  although  the  hope  be  vain 
To  tell  their  glories  in  a  worthy  strain, 
Whose  holy  fame  in  earliest  life  was  won, 
Who  toiled  unresting  till  the  task  was  done. 
Far  as  the  distant  seas  all  owned  their  sway  ; 
High  as  the  heaven  none  checked  their  lofty  way. 
Constant  in  worship,  prompt  at  Duty's  call, 
Swift  to  reward  the  good,  the  bad  appal, 
They  gathered  wealth,  but  gathered  to  bestow, 
And  ruled  their  words  that  all  their  truth  might  know. 
In  glory's  quest  they  risked  their  noble  lives  ; 
For  love  and  children,  married  gentle  wives. 
On  holy  lore  in  cEildhood's  days  intent, 
In  love  and  joy  their  youthful  prime  they  spent, 
As  hermits,  mused,  in  life's  declining  day, 
Then  in  Devotion  dreamed  their  souls  away. 
Come,  hear  my  song,  ye  just,  whose  bosoms  glow 
With  Virtue's  flame,  and  good  from  evil  know. 
As  fire  assays  the  purity  of  gold, 
Judge  ye  the  merit  of  these  Chiefs  of  old. " 

KALIDASA'S  Raghuvansa,  by  Ralph  T.  H.  Griffith. 


Cooper-  S-HodaoriIii:h,IaiidorL 


1829.]  THE  MODERN  TYRE.  37 


CHAPTEK  II. 

BOMBAY,  with  the  marvellous  progress  of  which,  as  city  and 
province,  Wilson  was  to  he  identified  during  the  next  forty- 
seven  years,  has  a  history  that  finds  its  true  parallels  in  the 
Mediterranean  emporia  of  Tyre  and  Alexandria.  Like  the 
Phoenician  "  Rock "  of  Baal,  which  Hiram  enlarged  and 
adorned,  the  island  of  the  goddess  Mumbai  or  Mahima,  "  the 
Great  Mother,"  was  originally  one  of  a  series  of  rocks  which 
the  British  Government  has  connected  into  a  long  peninsula, 
with  an  area  of  18  square  miles.  Like  the  greater  port  which 
Alexander  created  to  take  the  place  of  Tyre,  and  called  hy  his 
own  name,  Bombay  carries  in  its  ships  the  commerce  of  the 
Mediterranean,  opened  to  it  by  the  Suez  Canal,  but  it  bears 
that  also  of  the  vaster  Indian  Ocean  and  Persian  Gulf. 
Although  it  can  boast  of  no  river  like  the  Mle,  by  which  alone 
Alexandria  now  exists,  Bombay  possesses  a  natural  harbour, 
peerless  alike  in  "West  and  East,  such  as  all  the  capital  and  the 
engineering  of  modern  science  can  never  create  for  the  land 
of  Egypt.  Instead  of  the  "  low  "  sands  which  gave  Canaan 
its  name,  and  the  muddy  flats  of  the  Mle  delta,  Bombay  pre- 
sents ridge  after  ridge  intersecting  noble  bays,  and  hill  upon 
hill,  rising  up  into  the  guardian  range  of  the  Western  Ghauts. 
From  their  giant  defiles  and  green  terraces  fed  by  the  periodic 
rains,  the  whole  tableland  of  the  Indian  Peninsula  gently 
slopes  eastward  to  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  seamed  by  mighty 
rivers,  and  covered  by  countless  forts  and  villages,  the  homes 
of  a  toiling  population  of  millions.  On  one  fourth,  and  that 
the  most  fertile  fourth,  of  the  two  centuries  of  Bombay's 


38  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

history,  John  Wilson,  more  than  any  other  single  influence, 
has  left  his  mark  for  ever. 

From  the  Periplus,  and  from  Marco  Polo,  we  learn  the 
commercial  prosperity  and  ecclesiastical  activity,  in  the  ear- 
liest times,  of  the  kingdoms  of  Broach,  Callian,  and  Tanna, 
on  the  mainland  and  around  Bombay.  But,  as  an  island, 
Bombay  was  too  exposed  to  the  pirates  who,  from  Abyssinia, 
Arabia  and  India  alike,  scoured  these  Eastern  seas,  to  be 
other  than  neglected.  Even  the  Portuguese  despised  it, 
although,  as  a  naval  power,  they  early  made  a  settlement 
there,  seeing  that  it  lay  between  their  possessions  in  the 
Persian  Gulf  and  their  capital  of  Goa.  But  they  still  held 
it  against  the  East  India  Company,  whose  agents,  exposed  to 
all  the  exactions  of  a  Mussulman  governor  in  the  factory  at 
Surat,  coveted  a  position  where  their  ships  could  make  them 
more  independent.  Twice  they  made  ineffectual  attempts  to 
take  the  place,  and,  in  1654,  when  Cromwell  had  given 
England  a  vigorous  foreign  policy,  the  Directors  represented 
to  him  the  advantage  of  asking  the  Portuguese  to  cede  both 
Bombay  and  Bassein.  But  although  the  Protector  had  exacted 
a  heavy  indemnity  for  all  Prince  Eupert  had  done  to  injure 
English  commerce,  he  took  hard  cash  rather  than  apparently 
useless  jungle.  And,  although  he  beheaded  the  Portuguese 
ambassador's  brother  for  murder  on  the  very  day  that  the 
treaty  was  signed,  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  took  any  more 
interest  in  the  distant  and  infant  settlements  in  India  than 
was  involved  in  his  general  project  for  a  Protestant  Council 
or  Propaganda  all  over  the  world.  It  was  left  to  Charles  II., 
in  1661,  to  add  Bombay  to  the  British  Empire  as  part  of  the 
Infanta  Catherines  dowry;  and  to  present  it  to  the  East  India 
Company  in  1668,  when  the  first  governor,  Sir  Gervase  Lucas, 
who  had  guarded  his  father  in  the  flight  from  Naseby,  had 
failed  to  prove  its  value  to  the  Crown.  Eor  an  annual  rent  of 
"£10  in  gold"  the  island  was  made  over  to  Mr.  Goody er — 


1829.]  FOUNDATION  OF  BOMBAY.  39 

deputed,  with  Streynsham  Master  and  others,  by  Sir  George 
Oxenden,the  President  of  Surat — "  in  free  and  common  soccage 
as  of  the  manor  of  East  Greenwich,"  along  with  all  the  Crown 
property  upon  it,  cash  to  the  amount  of  £4879  :  7  :  6,  and  such 
political  powers  as  were  necessary  for  its  defence  and  govern- 
ment. Among  the  commissioners  to  whom  the  management 
of  the  infant  settlement  fell  on  Oxenden's  death,  is  found  the 
name  of  one  Sterling,  a  Scottish  minister,  and  thus,  in  some 
sense,  the  only  predecessor  of  John  Wilson.  With  the  suc- 
cession of  Gerald  Aungier,  as  President  of  Surat  and  Governor 
of  the  island  in  1667,  the  history  of  Bombay  may  be  said  to 
have  really  begun.  It  is  a  happy  circumstance  that  the  be- 
ginning is  associated  with  the  names  of  the  few  good  men 
who  were  servants  of  the  Company,  in  a  generation  which  was 
only  less  licentious  than  that  of  the  Stewarts  at  home,  if  the 
temptations  of  exile  be  considered.  Oxenden,  Aungier  and 
Streynsham  Master  were  the  three  Governors  of  high  character 
and  Christian  aims,  who,  at  Surat,  Bombay  and  Madras, 
sought  to  purify  Anglo-Indian  society  and  to  evangelise  the 
natives  around. 

Bombay,  which  grew  to  be  a  city  of  250,000  inhabitants 
when  Wilson  landed  in  1829,  and  contained  650,000  before 
he  passed  away,  began  two  centuries  ago  with  600  landowners, 
who  were  formed  into  a  militia,  100  Brahmans  and  Hindoos  of 
the  trading  caste  who  paid  an  exemption  tax,  and  the  Com- 
pany's first  European  regiment  of  285  men,  of  whom  only  93 
were  English.  The  whole  population  was  little  above  5000.  A 
fort  was  built  and  mounted  with  twenty-one  guns,  and  five 
small  redoubts  capped  the  principal  eminences  around.  To 
attract  Hindoo  weavers  and  traders  of  the  Bunya  caste,  and 
to  mark  the  new  regime  as  the  opposite  of  the  intolerant  zeal 
of  the  Portuguese,  notice  was  given  all  along  the  coast,  from 
Diu  to  Goa,  that  no  one  would  be  compelled  to  profess  Chris- 
tianity, and  that  no  Christian  or  Muhammadan  would  be 


40  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

allowed  to  trespass  within  the  inclosures  of  the  Hindoo 
traders  for  the  purpose  of  killing  the  cow  or  any  animal,  while 
the  Hindoos  would  enjoy  facilities  for  burning  their  dead  and 
observing  their  festivals.  Forced  labour  was  prohibited,  for 
no  one  was  to  be  compelled  to  carry  a  burden.  Docks  were 
to  be  made ;  manufactures  were  to  be  free  of  tax  for  a  time, 
and  thereafter,  when  exported,  to  pay  not  more  than  three  and  a 
half  per  cent.  The  import  duties  were  two  and  a  half  per  cent 
with  a  few  exceptions.  Transit  and  market  duties  of  nine  per 
cent,  that  indirect  tax  on  food  and  clothing  which  the  people  of 
India  in  their  simplicity  prefer  to  all  other  imposts,  supplied 
the  chief  revenue  for  the  fortifications  and  administration.  And 
it  was  needed,  for  "  the  flats,"  which  still  pollute  Bombay  be- 
tween the  two  ridges,  were  the  fertile  seed-bed  of  cholera  and 
fever,  till  in  1684  the  first  of  the  many  and  still  continued 
attempts  at  drainage  were  made.  The  result  of  the  first  twenty 
years  of  the  Company's  administration  was  that  Bombay  super- 
seded Surat.  One  half  of  all  the  Company's  shipping  loaded 
at  London  direct  for  the  island,  where  there  was,  moreover, 
no  Nawab  to  squeeze  half  of  the  profits.  The  revenues  had 
increased  threefold.  The  population  consisted  of  60,000,  of 
whom  a  considerable  number  were  Portuguese,  and  the  "  Cooly 
Christians,"  or  native  fishermen,  whom  they  had  baptised  as 
Eoman  Catholics.  In  and  around  the  fort  the  town  stretched 
for  a  mile  of  low  thatched  houses,  chiefly  with  the  pearl  of 
shells  for  glass  in  their  windows.  The  Portuguese  could  show 
the  only  church.  On  Malabar  Hill,  where  Wilson  was  to  die 
in  "The  Cliff"  associated  by  all  classes  with  his  name,  there 
was  a  Parsee  tomb.  The  island  of  Elephanta  was  known  not 
so  much  for  the  Cave  Temples  which  he  described,  as  for  the 
carving  of  an  elephant  which  gave  the  place  its  name,  but 
has  long  since  disappeared.  At  Salsette  and  Bandora  the 
Portuguese  held  sway  yet  a  little  longer.  From  Tanna  to 
Bassein  their  rich  Dons  revelled  in  spacious  country  seats, 


1829.]  BOMBAY  A  FREE  CITY  OF  REFUGE.  41 

fortified  and  terraced.  The  Hidalgos  of  Bassein  reproduced 
their  capital  of  Lisbon,  with  Franciscan  convents,  Jesuit  col- 
leges, and  rich  libraries,  all  of  which  they  carefully  guarded, 
allowing  none  but  Christians  to  sleep  in  the  town.1 

The  tolerant  and  liberal  policy  of  the  English  government 
of  Bombay  soon  caused  all  that,  and  much  more,  to  be 
absorbed  in  their  free  city,  and  to  contribute  to  the  growth  of 
the  western  portion  of  the  new  empire.  If  to  some  the  tolera- 
tion promised  by  Aungier,  and  amplified  by  the  able  though 
reckless  Sir  John  Child,  seemed  to  go  too  far,  till  it  became 
virtual  intolerance  because  indifference  towards  the  faith  of 
the  ruling  power,  the  growing  public  opinion  of  England 
corrected  that  in  time.  For  the  next  century  the  British 
island  became  the  asylum  not  only  of  the  oppressed  peoples 
of  the  Indian  continent,  during  the  anarchy  from  the  death 
of  Aurungzeb  to  the  triumph  of  the  two  brothers  Wellesley 
and  Wellington,  but  of  persecuted  communities  of  western 
and  central  Asia,  like  the  Parsees  and  Jews,  as  well  as  of 
slave-ridden  Abyssinia  and  Africa.  Made  one  of  the  three 
old  Presidencies  in  1*708,  under  a  later  Oxenden,  and  sub- 
ordinated to  Calcutta  as  the  seat  of  the  Governor-General  in 
1773,  Bombay  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  governed  by  Jona- 
than Duncan  for  sixteen  years  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century. 

What  this  Forfarshire  lad,  going  out  to  India  at  sixteen, 
like  Malcolm  afterwards,  had  done  for  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity, the  education  and  progress  of  Benares,  and  the  four 
millions  around  it,  he  did  for  Bombay  at  a  most  critical  time. 
Not  less  than  Lord  William  Bentinck  does  he  deserve  the 
marble  monument  which  covers  his  dust  in  the  Bombay 
Cathedral,  where  the  figure  of  Justice  is  seen  inscribing  on 
his  urn  these  words,  "  He  was  a  good  man  and  a  just,"  while 

1  See  that  already  rare  work,  The  English  in  Western  India,  by  Philip 
Anderson,  A.M.,  chaplain,  Bombay.     1854. 


42  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

two  children  support  a  scroll,  on  which  is  written,  "  Infanticide 
abolished  in  Benares  and  Kattywar."  Between  the  thirty- 
nine  years  of  his  uninterrupted  service  for  the  people  of 
India,  which  closed  in  1811,  and  the  forty-seven  years  of 
John  Wilson's  not  dissimilar  labours  in  the  same  cause, 
which  began  in  1829,  there  occurred  the  administrations,  after 
Sir  Evan  Nepean,  of  the  Hon.  Mountstuart  Elphinstone  and 
Sir  John  Malcolm,  both  of  the  same  great  school.  Since  the 
negotiations  of  the  Peshwa  Eaghoba,  in  1*775,  with  the  Com- 
pany who  sought  to  add  Bassein  and  Salsette  to  Bombay  and 
so  make  it  the  entrepot  of  the  India  and  China  Seas,  the  pro- 
vince of  Bombay  had  grown  territorially  as  the  power  of  the 
plundering  Marathas  waned  from  internal  dissensions  and  the 
British  arms.  The  first  part  of  India  to  become  British,  the 
Western  Presidency  had  been  the  last  to  grow  into  dimensions 
worthy  of  a  separate  government  in  direct  communication 
with  the  home  authorities,  though  in  imperial  matters  con- 
trolled by  the  Governor -General  from  Calcutta.  Bombay 
Tiad  long  been  in  a  deficit  of  a  million  sterling  a  year  or  more. 
But  the  final  extinction  of  the  Maratha  Powers  by  Lord  Hast- 
ings in  1822  enabled  Bombay  to  extend  right  into  Central 
India  and  down  into  the  southern  Maratha  country,  while 
Poona  became  the  second  or  inland  capital  of  the  Presidency. 
The  two  men  who  did  most  to  bring  this  about,  and  to  settle 
the  condition  of  India  south  of  the  Yindhyas  territorially  as 
it  now  is,  were  Mountstuart  Elphinstone  and  John  Malcolm. 
What  they  thus  made  Bombay  Wilson  found  it,  and  that  it 
continued  to  be  all  through  his  life,  with  the  addition  of 
Sindh,  to  the  north,  in  1843,  and  of  an  exchange  of  a  county 
with  Madras  in  the  south.  Lord  Dalhousie,  and  afterwards 
Lord  Canning,  would  have  added  the  fertile  cotton-fields  of 
Berar  to  it  in  1861,  but  for  the  mismanagement  of  the  Eesident 
at  Hyderabad,  and  that  is  still  a  cause  of  irritation  between 
the  Government  of  India  and  the  Nizam.  'The  change  seems 


1829.]  MOUNTSTUART  ELPHINSTONE.  43 

at  hand,  by  which,  if  Sindh  is  transferred  to  the  Punjab  Pro- 
vince, the  old  Maratha  principality  of  the  Bhonslas,  known 
as  the  Central  Provinces  around  Nagpore,  will  be  united 
administratively  to  Bombay. 

Mountstuart  Elphinstone  had  no  warmer  admirer  than 
"Wilson,  who  wrote  a  valuable  sketch  of  his  life  for  the 
local  Asiatic  Society.  A  younger  son  of  the  eleventh  Lord 
Elphinstone,  and  an  Edinburgh  High  School  boy,  he  went  out 
to  India  as  a  "  writer  "  with  his  cousin  John  Adam,  who  was 
afterwards  interim  Governor-General.  Having  miraculously 
escaped  the  1799  massacre  at  Benares,  he  was  made  assistant 
to  the  British  Eesident  at  Poona,  then  the  Peshwa's  court. 
He  rode  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  side  at  the  victory  of 
Assye,  as  his  interpreter,  and  was  told  by  the  then  Colonel 
Wellesley  that  he  had  mistaken  his  calling,  for  he  was 
certainly  born  a  soldier.  Subsequently,  after  a  mission  to 
Cabul,  on  his  way  from  Calcutta  to  Poona  to  become  Eesident 
he  made  the  friendship  of  Henry  Martyn.  The  battle  of 
Kirkee  in  1817  punished  the  Peshwa's  latest  attempt  at 
treachery,  and  it  became  Elphinstone's  work  to  make  that 
brilliant  settlement  of  the  ceded  territories  which  has  been 
the  source  of  all  the  happiness  of  the  people  since.  His 
report  of  1819  stands  in  the  first  rank  of  Indian  state  papers, 
and  that  is  saying  much.  When,  after  that,  he  discovered  the 
plot  of  certain  Maratha  Brahmans  to  murder  all  the  English 
in  Poona  and  Satara,  the  man  who  was  beloved  by  the  mass 
of  the  natives  for  his  kindly  geniality  saved  the  public  peace 
by  executing  the  ringleaders.  His  prompt  firmness  astounded 
Sir  Evan  Nepean,  whom  he  afterwards  succeeded  as  Governor, 
into  advising  him  that  he  should  ask  for  an  act  of  indemnity. 
The  reply  was  characteristic  of  his  whole  career — "Punish 
me  if  I  have  done  wrong ;  if  I  have  done  right  I  need  no  act 
of  indemnity."  The  eight  years'  administration  of  this  good 
man,  and  great  scholar  and  statesman,  were  so  marked  by 


44  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

wisdom  and  success,  following  a  previously  brilliant  career, 
that  on  his  retiring  to  his  native  country  he  had  the  unique 
honour  of  being  twice  offered  the  position  of  Governor-General. 
What  he  did  for  oriental  learning  and  education,  and  how  his 
nephew  afterwards  governed  Bombay,  and  became  Wilson's 
friend  in  the  more  trying  times  of  1857,  we  shall  see. 

Sir  John  Malcolm,  too,  had  his  embassage  to  Persia,  and 
his  victory  in  battle — Mahidpore;  while  it  fell  to  him  to 
complete  that  settlement  of  Central  India  in  1818  with 
Bajee  Eao,  which  the  adopted  son,  Nana  Dhoondopunt, 
tried  vainly  to  upset  in  1857.  Malcolm's  generosity  on  that 
occasion  has  been  much  questioned,  but  it  had  Elphinstone's 
approval.  His  distinguished  services  of  forty  years  were  re- 
warded by  his  being  made  Elphinstone's  successor  as 
Governor  of  Bombay  in  1827.  In  the  ship  in  which  he 
returned  to  take  up  the  appointment  was  a  young  cadet,  now 
Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  whose  ability  he  directed  to  the  study  of 
oriental  literature.  He  had  been  Governor  for  little  more  than 
a  year  when  he  first  received,  at  his  daily  public  breakfast  at 
Parell,  the  young  Scottish  missionary  from  his  own  Border 
land.  Even  better  than  his  predecessor,  Malcolm  knew 
how  to  influence  the  natives,  by  whom  he  was  worshipped. 
He  continued  the  administrative  system  as  he  found  it,  writ- 
ing to  a  friend — "  The  only  difference  between  Mountstuart 
and  me  is  that  I  have  Mullagatawny  at  tiffin,  which  comes  of 
my  experience  at  Madras."  The  Governor  was  in  the  thick 
of  that  collision  with  the  Supreme  Court,  forced  on  him  by 
Sir  John  Peter  Grant's  attempt  to  exercise  jurisdiction  all 
over  the  Presidency — as  in  Sir  Elijah  Impey's  days  in  Calcutta. 
He  had  just  returned  from  one  of  those  tours  through  the 
native  States,  which  the  Governor,  like  Elphinstone  before 
him  and  the  missionary  after  him,  considered  "of  primal 
importance  "  for  the  well-being  of  the  people.  The  decision 
of  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Control  at  home,  then  Lord 


1829.]  GOVERNORS  OF  BOMBAY.  45 

Ellenborough,  was  about  to  result  in  the  resignation  of  the  im- 
petuous judge.  Such  was  Bombay,  politically  and  territorially 
when,  in  the  closing  weeks  of  the  cold  season  of  1828-9,  John 
Wilson  and  his  wife  landed  from  the  "Sesostris,"East  Indiaman.1 
Economically  the  year  1829  was  marked  by  the  first  serious 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Directors  at  home,  and  the  Govern- 
ment on  the  spot,  to  extend  the  cultivation  and  improve  the  fibre 
of  the  cotton  of  Western  India,  which  was  to  prove  so  important 
a  factor  alike  in  the  prosperity  and  the  adversity  of  Bombay 
in  the  coming  years.  In  that  review  of  his  three  years'  admi- 
nistration to  1st  December  1830,  which  Sir  John  Malcolm 
wrote  for  his  successors,  and  published  to  influence  the  dis- 
cussions on  the  Charter  of  1833,  under  the  title  of  The 
Government  of  India,  this  significant  sentence  occurs  : — "  A 
cotton  mill  has  been  established  in  Bengal  with  the  object  of 
underselling  the  printed  goods  and  yarns  sent  from  England ; 

1  Our  readers  will  find  it  useful  to  refer  to  this  list  of  the  Governors  of 
Bombay  just  before  and  during  Dr.  Wilson's  work  there — 

Governor.  Years. 

Jonathan  Duncan      ........         1795 

Sir  Evan  Nepean,  Bart 1812 

The  Hon.  Mountstuart  Elphinstone 1819 

Sir  John  Malcolm,  K.C.B .        1827 

Earl  of  Clare .         .         .         1831 

Sir  Kobert  Grant 1835 

Sir  James  Rivett-Carnac,  Bart. 1839 

Sir  George  Arthur,  Bart 1842 

Sir  George  Russell  Clerk 1847 

Viscount  Falkland 1848 

Lord  Elphinstone,  G.C.B 1855 

Sir  George  Russell  Clerk  (2d  time) 1860 

Sir  Bartle  Frere,  Bart 1862 

Sir  Seymour  Fitzgerald      .......         1867 

Sir  Philip  Wodehouse 1872 

Sir  Richard  Temple,  Bart. 1877 

Sir  "W.  H.  Macnaghten  was  massacred  in  1841  when  about  to  leave  Cabul 
to  join  his  appointment  as  Governor  of  Bombay.  The  Honourable  Messrs.  George 
Brown  in  1811  ;  John  Romer  in  1831  ;  James  Parish  in  1838  ;  G.  W.  Ander- 
son in  1841  ;  and  L.  R.  Reid  in  1846,  were  senior  members  of  council,  who 
acted  for  a  short  time  as  interim  Governors. 


46 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1829. 


but  there  are,  in  my  opinion,  causes  which,  for  a  long  period, 
must  operate  against  the  success  of  such  an  establishment." 
The  period  has  not  proved  to  be  so  long  as  the  conservative 
experience  of  the  Governor  led  him  to  believe.  In  this 
respect  Bombay  soon  shot  ahead  of  Bengal,  which  afterwards 
found  a  richer  trade  in  jute  and  tea.  But  the  withdrawal  of 
the  last  restriction  on  trade  was,  when  Wilson  landed,  about  to 
co-operate  with  a  consolidated  administration  to  make  Bombay 
the  seat  of  an  enriching  commerce,  of  which  its  varied  native 
communities  obtained  a  larger  share  than  elsewhere.  A 
society  composed  of  Hindoo,  Parsee,  Jewish,  and  even  Mu- 
hammadan  merchant  princes,  was  being  brought  to  the  birth, 
side  by  side  with  the  great  Scottish  houses,  at  the  head  of 
which  was  Sir  Charles  Forbes.  And  the  man  had  come  to  lift 
them  all  to  a  higher  level ;  to  purify  them  all,  in  differing 
degrees,  by  the  loftiest  ideal. 

At  this  time  our  Indian  Empire  was  just  one  third  of  its 
present  magnitude,  but  its  native  army  was  186,000  strong,  a 
fourth  more  than  since  the  Mutiny.  Including  St.  Helena, 
the  area  was  514,238  square  miles,  the  population  89J 
millions,  and  the  gross  revenue  £21,695,207.  The  whole  was 
administered  in  88  counties  by  1083  British  civil  officers,  and 
defended  by  37,428  white  troops.  Of  the  three  Presidencies 
the  Western  was  by  far  the  smallest,  but  its  geographical 
position  gave  it  an  advantage  as  the  centre  of  action  from  Cape 
Comorin  to  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  from  Central 
India  to  Central  Africa.  Its  area  was  65,000  square  miles, 
not  much  more  than  that  of  England  and  Wales.  Its  popu- 
lation was  6J  millions  in  ten  counties,  and  its  gross  annual 
revenue  2J  millions  sterling.  The  whole  province  was 
garrisoned  by  7728  white  troops  and  32,508  sepoys,  under 
its  own  Commander-in- Chief ;  and  it  had  a  Marine  or  Navy, 
famous  in  its  day  and  too  rashly  abolished  long  after,  which 
was  manned  by  542  Europeans  and  618  natives. 


1829.]         FIRST  EDUCATIONAL  EXPERIMENTS  IN  BOMBAY.  47 

Notwithstanding  the  enlightened  action  and  tolerant 
encouragement  of  Mountstuart  Elphinstone  and  Malcolm, 
public  instruction  and  Christian  education  were  still  in  the 
day  of  small  things  in  Bombay,  although  it  was  in  some 
respects  more  advanced  than  Bengal  which  soon  distanced  it 
for  a  time.  In  the  Presidency,  as  in  Madras  and  Calcutta, 
a  charity  school  had  been,  in  1718,  forced  into  existence  by 
the  very  vices  of  the  English  residents  and  the  conditions  of 
a  then  unhealthy  climate.  Legitimate  orphans  and  illegiti- 
mate children,  white  and  coloured,  had  to  be  cared  for, 
and  were  fairly  well  trained  by  public  benevolence,  for  the 
Company  gave  no  assistance  till  1807.  In  the  Charter  of 
1813,  which  Charles  Grant  and  Wilberforce  had  partially 
succeeded  in  making  half  as  liberal  as  that  granted  by 
William  III.  in  1698,  Parliament  gave  India  not  only  its  first 
Protestant  bishop,  archdeacons,  and  Presbyterian  chaplains, 
but  a  department  of  public  instruction  bound  to  spend  at 
least  a  lakh  of  rupees  a  year,  or  £10,000,  on  the  improvement 
of  literature,  and  the  promotion  of  a  knowledge  of  the  sciences 
among  the  people.  In  1815  the  Bombay  Native  Education 
Society  was  formed,  and  opened  schools  in  Bombay,  Tanna, 
and  Broach,  with  the  aid  of  a  Government  grant.  Imme- 
diately after  Mountstuart  Elphinstone's  appointment  as  Gover- 
nor it  extended  its  operations  to  supplying  a  vernacular  and 
school-book  literature.  It  recommended  the  adoption  of  the 
Lancasterian  method  of  teaching,  then  popular  in  England, 
and  it  continued  the  useful  work  till  1840,  when  it  became  in 
name,  what  it  had  always  been  in  fact,  the  public  Board  of 
Education.  Since  it  failed  to  provide  for  the  Southern  Kon- 
kan,  or  coast  districts,  Major  Jervis,  E.E.,  who  became  an 
earnest  coadjutor  of  Wilson,  established  a  similar  society  for 
that  purpose  in  1823,  but  that  was  affiliated  with  the  origi- 
nal body.  When  Poona  became  British,  Mr.  Chaplin,  the 
Commissioner  in  the  Deccan,  established  a  Sanscrit  college 


48  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

there,  which  failed  from  the  vicious  Oriental  system  on  which 
it  was  conducted,  in  spite  of  its  enjoyment  of  the  Dukshina 
or  charity  fund  of  Ks.  35,000  a  year,  established  by 
the  Peshwas  for  the  Brahmans'  education.1  The  Society's 
central  school  in  Bombay  was  more  successful,  and  is  still  the 
principal  Government  High  School.  When  Mountstuart 
Elphinstone  left  Bombay  in  1827,  the  native  gentlemen  sub- 
scribed, as  a  memorial  of  him,  £21,600,  from  the  interest  of 
which  professorships  were  to  be  established  "  to  be  held  by 
gentlemen  from  Great  Britain,  until  the  happy  period  arrived 
when  natives  shall  be  fully  competent  to  hold  them."  But 
no  such  professors  arrived  till  1835,  when  they  held,  in  the 
Town  Hall,  classes  which  have  since  grown  into  the  Elphin- 
stone College.  In  that  year,  out  of  a  population  of  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  million  in  the  Island  of  Bombay  only  1026  were 
at  school ;  in  the  rest  of  the  province  the  scholars  numbered 
1864  in  the  Maratha,  and  2128  in  the  Goojaratee-speaking 

1  When,  in  1842,  presiding  at  the  annual  examination  of  the  General 
Assembly's  English  school  at  Poona,  Dr.  "Wilson  thus  pictured  the  days  of 
Brahmanical  supremacy  and  bigotry  in  the  capital  of  the  Peshwas.  The 
italics  and  capital  letters  are  his  : — "  Twenty-five  years  ago,  when  the  Brah- 
mans constituted  the  soul,  at  this  place,  of  the  Maratha  Government,  the 
most  powerful  which  had  been  formed  in  India  since  its  conquest  by  the 
Mussulmans — which  it  was  the  first  to  impair  and  to  limit — few  persons  could 
have  imagined  the  existence  and  progress  of  a  Christian  seminary  such  as  that 
which  the  Church  of  Scotland  has  been  honoured  to  found  in  the  capital  of  the 
Dekhan.  Even  after  the  conquest  of  the  province  by  the  British,  we  find  the 
Commissioner,  Mr.  Chaplin,  when  instituting  the  Poona  College,  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  Bombay  Government,  sacrificing  every  sound  educational 
principle  to  his  apprehension  of  the  non-concurrence  of  the  people  with  the 
measures  which  he  thought  it  might  be  desirable  ultimately  to  adopt.  '  The 
Commissioner  states ' — it  is  mentioned  in  the  interesting  Eeport  of  the  Board 
of  Education  just  published — '  that  in  order  to  secure  as  far  as  possible  the 
popularity  of  the  establishment  with  the  Hindu  community,  he  had  proposed 
the  appointment  of  teachers  in  all  their  branches  of  learning,  although  MANY 
OF  THEM  WERE  PERHAPS  WORSE  THAN  USELESS.  '  He  adds  [after  a  consider- 
able interval]  '  that  he  had  not  yet  taken  any  measures  towards  the  introduction 
of  ANY  branches  of  European  science  :  but  he  had  endeavoured  to  direct  the 
attention  of  the  College  principally  to  such  part  of  their  own  Shashtras  as  are 
not  only  more  useful  in  themselves,  but  will  best  prepare  their  minds  for  a 


1829.]      A  VICIOUS  OEIENTALISM  IN  GOVERNMENT  SCHOOLS.       49 

districts,  or  5018  in  all.  In  the  four  years  ending  1830,  just 
before  and  after  Wilson's  arrival,  the  Bombay  Government 
remarked,  "  with  alarm,"  that  although  it  had  fixed  its  annual 
grant  to  public  instruction  at  £2000  it  had  spent  £20,192  in 
that  period.  So  apathetic  were  the  natives  that  they  had 
subscribed  only  £471,  while  the  few  Europeans  had  given 
£818  for  the  same  purpose.  Truly  the  system  of  a  vicious 
Orientalism  was  breaking  down,  as  opposed  to  that  of  which 
Wilson  was  to  prove  the  apostle — the  communication  of  West- 
ern truth  on  Western  methods  through  the  Oriental  tongues 
so  as  to  elevate  learned  and  native  alike.  In  their  report  of 
1828-29  the  Native  Education  Society  had  remarked,  but 
without  the  facts  to  support  the  statement,  "  We  venture  to 
say  that  in  no  part  of  the  globe  have  such  wide  and  effectual 
advantages  spread  so  quickly  from  means  at  first  apparently 
circumscribed,  and  in  the  face  of  so  many  and  great  difficul- 
ties." l  In  truth,  in  Bombay  as  in  Calcutta  and  the  rest  of 

gradual  reception  of  more  valuable  instructions  at  a  future  time.'  In  the 
establishment  which  he  actually  formed  and  supported,  we  find  the  polytheis- 
tic Vedas  and  pantheistic  Yedanta  occupying  a  most  prominent  place  ;  every 
native  excluded  from  the  walls  of  the  seminary — as  is  actually  the  case  in  the 
present  day — -who  could  not  lay  claims  to  the  holiness  and  dignity  of  the 
Brahmanhood  ;  a  dead  and  imaginary  sacred  language,  the  Sanscrit,  chosen 
as  the  sole  medium  of  communicating  instruction  ;  heathen  rights  and  cere- 
monies tolerated  and  enjoined  by  the  College  authorities,  and  paid  for  by  the 
Christian  Government,  and  our  own  judges  and  magistrates  scowled  at  and 
insulted,  when  they  ventured  to  visit  the  tabooed  enclosure  ;  and  endless 
bickerings  and  quarrels  among  both  the  professors  and  students.  In  fact, 
we  find  so  many  gross  and  glaring  evils  in  it,  that  the  Eevenue  and  Judicial 
Commissioners  and  Agent  for  Sirdars,  with  the  Collector,  recommend  its 
'  abolition  ; '  and  Government  say,  in  reply  to  their  representations,  that  '  the 
Institution  had  failed  of*  its  object,  that  it  had  fulfilled  no  purpose  but  that 
of  perpetuating  prejudices  and  false  systems  of  opinion ;  and  that  unless  it 
could  be  reformed  [as  it  now  to  a  great  extent  happily  is  through  the  wise 
measures  ably  and  zealously  carried  into  effect  by  its  European  Superintendent, 
Captain  Candy]  it  had  better  be  abolished.'  " 

1  These  statistics  are  taken  from  a  confidential  Report  on  "Education  in 
British  India  prior  to  1854,  and  in  1870-71,"  made  by  the  Home  Department 
to  the  Government  of  India  in  1872.  The  Report  should  be  written  up  to  the 
present  year  and  published. 


50  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

India,  education  was  languishing  or  being  directed  to  the  most 
evil  ends,  as  long  before  pointed  out  by  James  Mill  in  one  of 
the  Leadenhall  Street  despatches  to  the  Governor-General,  for 
want  of  those  reforms  which  the  coming  Charter  of  1833  en- 
abled the  government  under  men  like  Lord  William  Bentinck 
and  Macaulay,  and  guided  by  missionary-statesmen  like  Alex- 
ander Duff  and  John  Wilson,  to  direct,  with  incalculable 
results  both  social  and  spiritual.  The  almost  exclusively 
Orientalising  policy  of  the  Government  previous  to  1835,  left 
Bombay  a  tabula  rasa  on  which  Wilson  soon  learned  to  engrave 
characters  of  light  and  life  that  were  never  to  be  obliterated. 

Nor  had  the  few  missionaries  then  in  Western  India  an- 
ticipated him.  Self-sacrificing  to  an  extent  for  which,  save 
from  their  great  successor,  they  have  rarely  got  credit,  they 
were  lost  in  the  jungle  of  circumstances.  The  American 
missionaries  were  the  first  Protestants  to  take  up  the  work 
which,  in  the  early  Christian  centuries,  the  Nestorians  had 
begun  at  the  ancient  port  of  Kalliana,  the  neighbouring 
Callian,  which  was  long  the  seat  of  a  Persian  bishop.  In 
1813,  Dr.  Coke  sailed  for  Bombay  with  the  same  Major 
Jervis,  E.E.,  who  did  so  much  for  the  Konkan.  His  succes- 
sors, for  he  died  at  sea,  began  that  work  of  primary  import- 
ance in  every  mission,  an  improved  edition  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament in  the  vernacular  Marathee,  for  which  Mr.  Wilson 
expressed  his  gratitude  soon  after  his  arrival.  But  when,  at 
a  later  period,  one  of  their  annual  reports  ignorantly  repre- 
sented the  Americans  as  having  been  the  first  to  evangelise 
the  Marathas,  he  felt  constrained  to  publish  this  statement  of 
the  facts. 

"The  American  missionaries  first  came  to  Bombay  in 
1813  ;  but  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament  in  Marathee  had 
been  published  by  the  Serampore  missionaries  in  1811.  Dr. 
Robert  Drummond  published  his  grammar  and  glossary  of  the 
Goojaratee  and  Marathee  languages  at  the  Bombay  Courier 


1829.]       THE  EARLIEST  MISSIONARIES  IN  WESTERN  INDIA.          51 

press  in  1808.  Dr.  Carey  published  his  Marathee  grammar 
and  dictionary  at  Serampore  in  1810.  All  these  helps  were 
enjoyed  by  the  American  missionaries ;  and  though  they  are 
by  no  means  so  important  as  those  which  are  now  accessible 
to  all  students  and  missionaries,  we  would  be  guilty  of  ingra- 
titude to  those  who  furnished  them  were  we  to  overlook  them. 
Suum  cuique  tribue  should  ever  be  our  motto.  The  Eomish 
Church  we  know  to  be  very  corrupted;  but  I  have  seen  works 
composed  by  its  missionaries  about  two  hundred  years  ago, 
which  could  'give  the  Marathas  the  least  idea  of  the  true 
character  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  Scripture.'  It  is  too 
much  when  the  labours  of  the  Eomish  missionaries  are  con- 
sidered, to  affirm  that '  not  a  tree  in  this  forest  had  been  felled' 
till  the  American  missionaries  came  to  this  country.  There 
have  been  some  pious  Eoman  Catholics  in  Europe,  and  why 
may  there  not  have  been  some  amongst  the  eight  generations 
of  the  300,000  in  the  Marathee  country?  The  Serampore 
missionaries  admitted  several  Marathas  to  their  communion 
before  1813." 

The  first  American  missionaries  had  their  own  romance, 
like  all  pioneers.  They  were  driven  from  Calcutta  by  the 
Government  in  1812,  and  told  they  might  settle  in  Mauritius. 
Judson  happily  was  sent  to  Burma  by  Dr.  Carey.  Messrs. 
Hall  and  Nott  took  ship  to  Bombay.  Thence  the  good  but 
weak  Sir  Evan  Nepean,  who  had  been  shocked  by  Elphin- 
stone's  firmness  in  the  Poona  plot,  warned  them  off;  but  an 
appeal  to  his  Christian  principle  led  him  to  temporise  until 
Charles  Grant  and  the  Charter  of  the  next  year  restrained  the 
Company.  In  1 81 5  the  London  Missionary  Society  repeated  at 
Surat,  and  afterwards  in  Belgaum,  an  effort  to  found  a  mission 
which  in  1807  had  failed  in  the  island  of  Bombay.  In  1820,  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  began  in  Western  India  that  work 
which  in  time  bore  good  fruit  for  Africa  also.  In  1822  the 
increase  of  British  territory,  caused  by  the  extinction  of  the 


52  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

Maratha  power,  induced  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society, 
which  since  1796  had  been  working  in  West  Africa,  to  send 
as  its  first  missionary  to  Bombay  the  Rev.  Donald  Mitchell, 
a  son  of  the  manse,  who,  when  a  lieutenant  of  infantry  at 
Surat,  had  been  led  to  enter  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
He  was  followed  by  the  Eevs.  John  Cooper ;  James 
Mitchell;  Alexander  Crawford,  whose  health  soon  failed; 
John  Stevenson,  who  became  a  chaplain ;  and,  finally,  Robert 
Nesbit,  fellow  student  of  Dr.  Duff  at  St.  Andrews  University 
under  Chalmers,  and  Wilson's  early  friend.  "Desperately 
afraid  of  offending  the  Brahmans,"  as  a  high  official  expressed 
it,1  the  authorities  would  not  allow  the  early  Scottish  mis- 
sionaries to  settle  in  Poona,  which  had  too  recently  become 
British,  as  they  desired.  Had  not  a  native  distributor  of 
American  tracts  just  before  been  seized,  by  order,  and 
escorted  to  the  low  land  at  the  foot  of  the  Ghauts  ?  So  there, 
on  the  fertile  strip  of  jungly  coast,  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
widow-burning,  self-righteous,  intellectually  able  and  proud 
Maratha  Brahmans,  the  Scottish  evangelists  began  their  work 
of  sheer  necessity,  for  they  considered  that  Bombay  was 
already  cared  for  by  the  American  and  English  missions.  The 
Governors,  Elphinstone  and  Malcolm,  however,  although  they 
would  not  allow  the  good  men  to  be  martyred  in  Poona,  as 
they  supposed,  with  all  the  possible  political  complications, 
subscribed  liberally  to  their  funds,  a  thing  which  no  Gover- 
nor-General dared  do  till  forty  years  after,  when  John  Law- 
rence ruled  from  Calcutta.  In  Hurnee  and  Bankote,  from  sixty 
to  eighty  miles  down  the  coast  from  Bombay,  these  mission- 
aries had  preached  in  Marathee  and  opened  or  inspected 
primary  schools,  with  small  results.  So  terrible  was  the  social 
sacrifice  involved  in  the  profession  and  communion  of  Chris- 
tianity that  the  first  Hindoo  convert,  in  1823,  some  weeks 

1  See  Memoir  of  f.ie  Rev.  Robert  Ncsbit,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Murray  Mitchell. 

1858. 


1829.]  ENGLISH  SOCIETY  IN  BOMBAY.  53 

after  his  baptism,  rushed  from  the  Lord's  Table  when  Mr.  Hall 
was  about  to  break  the  bread,  exclaiming,  "  No,  I  will  not 
break  caste  yet."  Long  before  this  the  good  James  Forbes, 
father  of  the  Countess  de  Montalembert,  had  given  it  as  his 
experience  of  Anglo-Indians  at  all  the  settlements  of  Bombay, 
from  Ahmedabad  to  Anjengo,  and  dating  from  1766,  "that 
the  character  of  the  English  in  India  is  an  honour  .to  the 
country.  In  private  life  they  are  generous,  kind,  and  hospit- 
able ;  in  their  public  situations,  when  called  forth  to  arduous 
enterprise,  they  conduct  themselves  with  skill  and  magnani- 
mity ;  and,  whether  presiding  at  the  helm  of  the  political  and 
commercial  department,  or  spreading  the  glory  of  the  British 
arms,  with  courage,  moderation,  and  clemency,  the  annals  of 
Hindostan  will  transmit  to  future  ages  names  dear  to  fame 
and  deserving  the  applause  of  Europe.  .  .  .  With  all  the 
milder  virtues  belonging  to  their  sex,  my  amiable  country- 
women are  entitled  to  their  full  share  of  applause.  This  is 
no  fulsome  panegyric ;  it  is  a  tribute  of  truth  and  affection  to 
those  worthy  characters  with  whom  I  so  long  associated,  and 
will  be  confirmed  by  all  who  resided  in  India."  *  Mr.  Forbes 
finally  left  India  in  1784,  when  only  thirty-five  years  of  age, 
but  after  eighteen  years'  experience. 

The  successive  Governors  had  given  an  improved  tone  to 
Anglo-Indian  society,  and  the  few  missionaries  and  chaplains 
had  drawn  around  them  some  of  the  officials  both  in  the 
Council  and  in  the  ordinary  ranks  of  the  civil  and  military 
services.  But  the  squabbles  in  the  Supreme  Court,  and 
the  reminiscences  of  a  Journalist,2  who  has  published  his 
memoirs  recently,  show  that  here  also  the  new  missionary  had 
a  field  prepared  for  him,  which  it  became  his  special  privilege 
to  develope  and  adorn  with  all  the  purity  of  a  Christian  ideal 
and  all  the  grace  of  a  cultured  gentleman.  What  in  this  way 

1  Oriental  Memoirs  (1834),  vol.  i.  page  98. 

2  The  Memoirs  of  a  Journalist,  by  J.  H.  Stocqueler.     Bombay,  1873. 


54  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

he  did,  unobtrusively  and  almost  unconsciously,  in  Bombay 
for  forty  years,  will  hardly  be  understood  without  a  glance  at 
this  picture  of  the  Island  in  1830,  as  drawn  by  the  editor  of 
the  Bombay  Courier : — 

"The  opportunity  of  leaving  Bombay  was  not  to  be  regretted. 
'  Society '  on  that  pretty  little  island  had  a  very  good  opinion  of  itself, 
but  it  was  in  reality  a  very  tame  affair.  It  chiefly  consisted  of  foolish 
burra  sahibs  (great  folk)  who  gave  dinners,  and  chota  sahibs  (little  folk) 
who  ate  them.  The  dinners  were  in  execrable  taste,  considering  the 
climate.  .  .  .  But  the  food  for  the  palate  was  scarcely  so  flavour- 
less as  the  conversation.  Nothing  could  be  more  vapid  than  the  talk 
of  the  guests,  excepting  when  some  piece  of  scandal  affecting  a  lady's 
reputation  or  a  gentleman's  official  integrity  gave  momentary  piquancy 
to  the  dialogue.  Dancing  could  hardly  be  enjoyed  with  the  ther- 
mometer perpetually  ranging  between  80°  and  100°  Fahrenheit,  and 
only  one  spinster  to  six  married  women  available  for  the  big- wigs  who 
were  yet  to  be  caged.  A  quiet  tiffin  with  a  barrister  or  two,  or  an 
officer  of  the  Eoyal  Staff  who  could  converse  on  English  affairs,  and  a 
game  of  billiards  at  the  old  hotel  or  one  of  the  regimental  messes, 
were  about  the  only  resources,  next  to  one's  books,  available  to  men  at 
the  Presidency  endowed  with  a  trifling  share  of  scholarship  and  the 
thinking  faculty." 

Such  was  Bombay,  the  city  and  the  province,  when  John 
Wilson  thus  wrote  to  the  household  at  Lauder  his  first  impres- 
sions of  the  former  : — 

"Everything  in  the  appearance  of  Bombay  and  the  character  of 
the  people  differs  from  what  is  seen  at  home.  Figure  to  yourselves  a 
clear  sky,  a  burning  sun,  a  parched  soil,  gigantic  shrubs,  numerous 
palm  trees,  a  populous  city  with  inhabitants  belonging  to  every  country 
under  heaven,  crowded  and  dirty  streets,  thousands  of  Hindoos, 
Muhammadans,  Parsees,  Buddhists,  Jews,  and  Portuguese ;  perpetual 
marriage  processions,  barbarous  music,  etc.,  etc.  ;  and  you  will  have 
some  idea  of  what  I  observe  at  present.  In  Bombay  there  are  many 
heathen  temples,  Muhammadan  mosques,  and  Jewish  synagogues, 
several  Roman  Catholic  chapels,  one  Presbyterian  Church,  one 
Episcopal  Church,  and  one  Mission  Church  belonging  to  the  Americans. 
I  preached  in  the  Scotch  Church  on  the  first  Sabbath  after  my  arrival, 
and  in  the  Mission  Church  on  Sabbath  last." 


CHAPTER  III. 

1829-1836. 
ORGANISATION  AND  FIRST  FRUIT  OF  THE  MISSION. 

The  Languages  of  the  People — If  necessary  for  Officials  much  mere  for 
Missionaries — Foundation  of  Wilson's  Oriental  Scholarship — Masters  Marathee 
so  as  to  preach  his  first  Sermon  in  six  Months— Tentative  efforts  at  Hurnee — 
First  visit  to  a  Hindoo  House  and  Discussion  with  a  Parsee — Prohibition  of 
Suttee  :  Letter  to  Lord  William  Bentinck — "  Plan  of  Operations  in  the  Island 
of  Bombay"  —  His  first  European  Friends  —  Establishes  the  Oriental  Chris- 
tian Spectator — Census  of  Bombay — Wilson  and  Duff— Presbyterian  Constitu- 
tion of  a  Native  Church — Transferred  from  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society  to 
the  General  Assembly — Progress  of  the  Mission  to  1836 — Letters  to  Mr.  J. 
Jordan  Wilson,  and  beginning  of  the  Ten  Years'  Conflict. 


"  A  good  man  was  ther  of  religioun, 

And  was  a  poure  PERSOUN  of  a  toun  ; 

But  riche  he  was  of  holy  thought  and  werk. 

He  was  also  a  lerned  man,  a  clerk 

That  Cristes  gospel  trewely  wolde  preche  ; 

His  parischens  devoutly  wolde  he  teche. 

Benigne  he  was,  and  wonder  diligent, 

And  in  adversite  ful  pacient ; 

And  such  he  was  i-proved  ofte  sithes. 

Ful  loth  were  him  to  curse  for  his  tythes. 

But  rather  wolde  he  yeven  out  of  dowte, 

Unto  his  poure  parisschens  aboute, 

Of  his  offrynge,  and  eek  of  his  substaunce. 

He  cowde  in  litel  thing  han  suffisaunce. 

"Wyd  was  his  parische,  and  houses  fer  asonder, 

But  he  ne  lafte  not  for  reyne  ne  thonder, 

In  siknesse  nor  in  meschief  to  visite 

The  ferreste  in  his  parissche,  moche  and  lite, 

Uppon  his  feet,  and  in  his  hond  a  staf. 

This  noble  ensample  to  his  scheep  he  yaf, 

That  first  he  wroughte,  and  afterward  he  taughte, 

Out  of  the  gospel  he  tho  wordes  caughte, 

And  this  figure  he  addede  eek  therto, 

That  if  gold  ruste,  what  schal  yren  doo  ? 

And  though  he  holy  were,  and  vertuous, 
He  was  to  sinful  man  nought  despitous, 
Ne  of  his  speche  daungerous  ne  digne, 
But  in  his  teching  discret  and  benigne. 
To  drawe  folk  to  heven  by  fairness  e 
By  good  ensample,  this  was  his  busynesse  : 
But  it  were  eny  persone  obstinat, 
What  so  he  were,  of  high  or  lowe  estat, 
Him  wold  he  snybbe  scharply  for  the  nones. 
A  bettre  preest,  I  trowe,  there  nowher  non  is. 
He  waytede  after  no  pompe  and  reverence, 
Ne  makede  him  a  spiced  conscience, 
But  Cristes  lore,  and  his  apostles  twelve, 
He  taughte,  but  first  he  folwede  it  himselve." 

CHAUCER. — The  Prologue. 


1829.]     CLASSICAL  AND  VERNACULAR  LANGUAGES  OF  INDIA. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

IF  a  knowledge  of  the  language  of  the  people,  vernacular  and, 
where  possible,  classical  also,  is  the  indispensable  qualification 
of  every  official,  so  that  it  is  carefully  provided  for  by  the 
competitive  examinations  in  England  and  by  the  profes- 
sional tests  in  the  four  great  groups  of  Provinces  in  India,  how 
much  more  is  it  required  by  the  foreign  missionary.  The 
assistant-magistrate,  even  the  district  officer,  who  rules  a 
million  of  people  in  one  of  the  200  counties  of  the  Indian 
Empire ;  the  judge  who,  outside  of  the  three  English  cities, 
hears  cases  and  writes  his  decisions  in  the  prevailing  language 
of  the  province,  may  be  content  with  a  merely  official  use  of 
the  Marathee  or  Goojaratee,  the  Tamul  or  Teloogoo,  the 
Hindee  or  Hindostanee,  the  Bengalee  or  Oorya,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  Persian  and  the  Sanscrit  which  enrich  all  the  thirty 
languages  of  our  Indian  subjects.  There  is  no  conscientious 
civil  or  military  officer,  however,  who  will  not  value  his  lin- 
guistic knowledge  for  the  highest  social  as  well  as  political 
ends,  in  kindly  intercourse  with  all  classes ;  and  there  is  no 
one  of  scholarly  tastes  who  will  be  content  without  some 
acquaintance  with  the  learned  languages  of  the  East,  whether 
Aryan  or  Semitic.  But  as  the  heart  of  a  people  is  reached 
through  its  mother-tongue,  and  all  that  is  best  worth  knowing 
about  a  country  is  to  be  found  in  its  dialects  and  literature, 
the  Christian  missionary  and  scholar,  above  all  officials,  will 
master  the  vernacular  as  his  most  precious  instrument,  and 
the  classical  language  that  feeds  it  as  his  most  useful  store- 
house of  information  and  illustration,  argument  and  authority. 


58  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

The  Scottish,  like  the  American  missionaries  who  first  worked 
in  Western  India,  were  pre-eminent  in  such  studies,  follow- 
ing an  example  fortunately  set  them  and  all  subsequent 
preachers  and  teachers  in  the  East,  by  the  Baptist  "  cobbler" 
and  most  versatile  orientalist  of  his  day, — William  Carey.  Mr. 
Wilson's  student  friend  especially,  Eobert  ISTesbit,  who  had 
preceded  him  to  India  by  sixteen  months,  was  already  a  fluent 
speaker  of  that  Marathee,  of  which  he  became  so  remarkable 
a  preacher  and  writer  that  the  natives  could  not  trace  even  a 
foreign  accent  in  his  pronunciation  and  use  of  its  idioms.  From 
the  first  to  the  last  day  of  his  India  life  Wilson  was  of  opinion 
that  a  year  or  longer  should  be  allowed  to  every  young  mis- 
sionary to  acquire  the  vernacular  of  his  province.  He  himself 
had  brought  to  India  a  more  than  professional  familiarity  with 
Latin  and  Greek ;  he  knew  French  for  literary  purposes ;  and 
he  carried  farther  than  his  old  professor  and  now  friend,  Dr. 
Brunton,  the  study  of  Hebrew.  He  had  not  been  a  month  in 
Bombay  when  he  and  his  most  apt  pupil,  his  wife,  left  it  for 
the  comparative  seclusion  of,  first  Bankote  and  then  Hurnee, 
that  they  might,  aided  by  their  brethren  and  in  the  midst 
of  the  country  people,  thoroughly  learn  Marathee,  to  begin 
with. 

In  the  eight  months  of  the  first  hot  and  rainy  seasons,  from 
April  to  November,  Mr.  Wilson  laid  the  foundation  of  his 
Orientalism  with  a  rapidity,  a  thoroughness,  and  a  breadth, 
due  alike  to  his  overmastering  motive,  his  previous  training, 
and  his  Mezzofanti-like  memory.  He  himself  tells,  in  the 
letters  and  journals  of  the  time,  how  he  set  to  work  after  a 
fashion  that  may  well  form  the  model  of  every  worker  in  India 
in  whatever  position.  We  find  Nesbit  thus  writing  to  him  at 
the  close  of  that  six  months'  fruitful  apprenticeship : — "  I  am 
accused  of  injuring  your  health  by  making  you  study  Marathee 
and  talk  with  me  at  night  .  .  .  Will  the  exhortation  to  take 
good  care  of  your  health  now  make  any  amends  ?  Get  up  at 


1829.]    PREACHES  FIRST  MARATHEE  SERMON  IN  SIX  MONTHS.    59 

six,  by  all  means ;  and,  that  you  may  be  able  to  do  so,  go  to 
bed  at  ten."  Mr.  Wilson  thus  addressed  his  directors  in 
Edinburgh : — 

"  As  a  year  has  passed  away  since  I  commenced  my  studies  of  the 
native  languages,  it  is  now  my  duty  to  give  you  a  brief  account  of  my 
progress.  By  referring  to  my  journals  I  find  that  it  was  on  the  18th 
of  August,  being  five  months  after  my  arrival  in  India,  that  I  began  to 
hold  consultations  with  the  Hindoos,  and  on  the  27th  of  September 
when  I  preached  my  first  sermon.  When  I  was  in  the  Konkan  I  gene- 
rally devoted  about  nine  hours  to  the  study  of  Marathee.  Since  I 
commenced  my  labours  in  Bombay  I  devote,  according  to  my  ability, 
all  the  intervals  from  active  missionary  duty  which  I  enjoy.  I  may 
mention  five  hours  daily  as  the  average  in  which  I  am  thus  engaged. 
During  the  first  two  months  of  my  studies  I  pursued,  as  far  as  is  prac- 
ticable, the  Hainiltonian  system.  Mr.  Nesbit  during  that  time  kindly 
furnished  me  with  the  English  of  my  lessons.  I  afterwards  principally 
depended  on  my  pundit,  who  had  only  a  knowledge  of  Marathee,  and 
on  the  literary  helps  whicli  I  could  obtain.  The  books  which  I  used 
were  translations  from  the  English  made  by  the  Native  Education 
Society,  native  stories,  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  mission  tracts, 
and  an  account  of  the  Hindoo  religion  written  by  a  Brahman  in  my 
employment,  in  reply  to  queries  which  I  addressed  to  him.  I  kept  a 
writer  for  four  months  who  furnished  me  with  lists  of  words  under  the 
different  principles  of  association  which  I  could  think  of.  I  devoted 
about  an  hour  daily  to  consideration  on  the  religion,  manners,  and 
customs  of  the  Hindoos,  which  I  regulated  according  to  Mr.  Ward's 
account. 

"  In  Bombay  I  have  some  facilities  for  study  which  I  did  not 
enjoy  in  the  Konkan.  These  principally  consist  in  my  being  able  to 
get  all  difficulties  readily  and  satisfactorily  solved,  and  in  my  being 
favoured  with  the  sheets  of  Captain  Molesworth's  and  Mr.  Candy's 
Dictionary  as  they  pass  through  the  press.  For  the  last  three  months 
I  have  devoted  the  hour  between  seven  and  eight  in  the  morning  to 
the  reading  of  Hebrew  with  the  points.  I  am  very  desirous,  for  the 
sake  of  usefulness  among  the  Jews  here,  and  other  important  reasons,  to 
attain  to  greater  proficiency  in  this  ancient  language.  My  teacher,  who 
is  a  rabbi,  is  an  excellent  scholar.  He  is  well  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Wolff,  whom  he  has  frequently  seen  in  Jerusalem  ;  and  he  declares, 
even  among  his  countrymen,  that  the  Messiah  has  already  appeared.  I 
am  not  without  hopes  of  his  being  a  converted  man.  I  expect  in  a 


60 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1829. 


short  time  to  be  able  to  commence  the  study  of  Hindostanee,  a 
language  which  will  enable  me  to  communicate  the  truths  of  the 
Gospel  to  many  natives  in  Bombay  to  whom  at  present  I  cannot  find 
access." 

Of  Captain  Molesworth,  brother  of  Lord  Molesworth,  and 
his  great  dictionary,  we  shall  hear  more.  At  Bankote,  sixty- 
eight  miles  south  of  Bombay,  Mr.  Wilson  took  his  seat  in  the 
missionary  council.  On  the  first  Sabbath  after  his  arrival  he 
witnessed  the  baptism  of  the  second  Hindoo  convert  of  the 
mission,  and  administered  the  sacrament  to  "  the  children 
of  the  East  and  West  seated  together  at  the  same  table." 
At  Hurnee  he  thus  describes  his  tentative  missionary  efforts, 
after  his  acquisition  of  Marathee,  in  the  opening  passage 
of  the  Journal,  which  he  again  continued  to  write  for  a  few 
weeks.  The  interest  of  the  passage  lies  chiefly  in  the  con- 
trast it  presents  to  his  Bombay  experience.  Mr.  Cooper,  who 
is  referred  to,  died  in  1868  in  Edinburgh,  after  long  service 
as  a  United  Presbyterian  minister  in  the  Midlothian  village 
of  Fala. 

"November  1st,  1829.  Sabbath. — I  preached  to  the  natives  in  the 
afternoon  on  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  children  of 
God.  The  man  whom  I  met  on  Friday  did  not  attend  the  Marathee 
services. 

"  2d. — I  preached  to  the  beggars  in  the  morning,  and  united  with 
Mr.  Cooper  in  addressing  the  natives  in  the  afternoon. 

"  3d. — I  addressed  the  natives  in  the  morning. 

"  4th,  5th. — I  addressed  the  servants  in  the  morning,  and  united 
with  Mr.  Cooper  in  preaching  to  the  natives  in  the  afternoon. 

"  6th. — I  addressed  the  natives  in  the  morning. 

"  7th. — I  addressed  the  natives,  and  made  preparations  for  the 
approaching  Sabbath. 

"  8th.  Sabbath. — I  preached  to  the  Europeans  on  "  The  carnal 
mind  is  enmity  against  God."  A  lady  who  heard  my  discourse  ap- 
peared to  be  a  good  deal  affected  by  it.  I  observed  her  in  tears.  May 
God  unfold  to  her  the  knowledge  of  her  state  by  nature  and  practice, 
and  lead  her  to  embrace  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

"  9th. — I  examined  the  bazaar  school,  and  preached  to  the  beggars 


1829.]  EARLY  WORK  IN  THE  SOUTHERN  KONKAN.  61 

in  the  morning  and  forenoon.  Messrs.  Nesbit  and  Taylor  of  Belgaura 
arrived  from  Bombay,  where  they  had  been  attending  a  meeting  of  the 
Bombay  Missionary  Union.  Mr.  Taylor,  who  is  a  highly  respected  and 
honoured  servant  of  the  Redeemer,  communicated  some  very  interest- 
ing intelligence  to  us  respecting  the  spread  of  the  Gospel.  He  men- 
tioned that  he  had  baptized  four  criminals  lately,  who,  previously  to 
their  death,  afforded  him  a  reason  to  hope  that  they  had  been  renewed 
in  the  spirit  of  their  minds ;  and  showed  us  a  very  interesting  letter 
respecting  the  proceedings  of  the  Baptist  Mission  in  Burma,  Dr. 
Judson  baptized  ten  individuals  during  the  first  three  months  of  this 
year. 

"  Wth. — I  spent  most  of  the  day  with  Mr.  Taylor.  He  left  us  in 
the  evening. 

"\\tli. — Along  with  Mrs.  Wilson  I  removed  from  Hurnee  to 
Dhapoolie,  in  the  hope  that,  as  stated  to  us  by  Dr.  Stewart  our  host,  a 
change  of  air  would  be  beneficial  to  our  health. 

"  1 2th. — I  spent  this  day  principally  in  intercourse  with  the  Euro- 
peans at  this  military  station. 

"  13^/i. — I  visited  in  the  morning  the  schools  of  Dhapoolie  and 
Jilgaum.  In  the  first  of  these  I  found  twenty-four  boys  and  one  girl. 
Few  of  them  could  read.  The  teacher,  like  too  many  of  those  supported 
by  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society,  appears  to  confine  his  chief  atten- 
tion to  writing  and  arithmetic,  which  are  taught  according  to  a  very 
careless  system.  In  the  second  I  found  fourteen  boys.  A  proper  pro- 
portion of  them  were  able  to  read.  In  the  course  of  the  day  I  preached 
to  the  natives,  and  distributed  a  considerable  number  of  tracts. 

"  1 4th. — I  travelled  between  Dhapoolie  and  Hurnee. 

"  1 5th. — I  preached  in  the  forenoon  and  evening  to  the  Europeans, 
and  in  the  afternoon  to  the  natives.  The  English  services  were 
attended  by  several  of  the  officers  from  Dhapoolie  and  the  commander 
of  the  Konkan  Division  of  the  Army." 

So  the  work  of  preaching,  examining,  and  teaching  goes  on 
daily,  all  the  month,  till  his  removal  to  Bombay.  We  have, 
in  what  follows,  the  beginning  of  those  tours,  and  discourses 
with  natives  of  all  classes,  which  gave  Mr.  Wilson  at  orice  his 
extraordinary  influence  and  his  vast  stores  of  information 
regarding  the  people  of  the  country. 

"  18th  November. — I  left  Hurnee  early  in  the  morning,  and, 
along  with  W.  M.  Webb,  Esq.,  rode  to  Punch-nuddee. 


62 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1829. 


"  The  country  through  which  we  passed  is  very  beautiful.  The 
scenery  is  variegated,  and  it  is  distinguished  by  numerous  hills  and 
valleys  which  are  covered  with  trees  and  jungle  shrubs,  and  which 
present  a  verdure  very  delightful  to  the  eye.  We  arrived  at  Punch- 
nuddee  at  half-past  8  o'clock.  As  our  porters  had  not  come  up,  we 
found  at  first  no  place  on  which  to  repose  ourselves.  We  procured, 
however,  some  bunches  of  straw  which  we  spread  in  the  veranda  of  the 
temple  in  which  we  intended  to  sleep  during  the  night,  and  which 
served  as  couches.  I  spent  the  most  of  the  day  in  addressing  the 
natives  who  came  to  the  temple,  in  preaching  in  the  village,  and  in 
distributing  tracts.  I  had  the  fullest  discussion  with  a  Brahman,  who 
stayed  with  me  for  about  three  hours,  on  the  subject  of  religion  I  have 
yet  enjoyed  or  witnessed.  The  following  is  an  outline  of  part  of  our 
conversation : — 

7.  '  Do  you  make  inquiries  on  the  subject  of  religion  ?' 

B.  '  Why  should  we  make  inquiries  respecting  religion  ?' 

/.  '  When  a  man  comes  into  the  world  his  mind  is  filled  with  evil, 
and  his  face  is  turned  towards  hell.  If  he  follow  his  evil  inclinations, 
and  make  no  inquiry  about  the  way  to  heaven,  he  will  meet  with 
destruction.' 

B.  '  Yes.  When  man  is  born  there  is  nothing  in  his  mind  but 
lust,  wrath,  selfish  affection,  etc.  Wisdom  must  be  obtained.' 

I.  '  Do  you  know  the  message  which  we  declare  in  this  country  ?' 

B.  '  I  know  a  little  about  it.' 

I.  '  Our  declaration  is  that  all  men  need  a  Saviour.'  [A  simple 
statement  of  Christian  truth  followed.] 

B.  '  Your  religion  is  good  ;  but  other  religions  are  good.  Those 
who  walk  according  to  them  will  be  saved.' 

/.  l  The  Christian  religion  is  the  only  religion  established  and 
approved  by  God.  Men,  instead  of  "  making  merit,"  make  sin.  The 
Christian  religion  is  the  only  religion  which  offers  a  righteousness  to 
man.  Men  are  naturally  unholy  and  unprepared  to  meet  God  ;  the 
Christian  religion  alone  affords  a  provision  for  the  purification  of  man, 
and  for  his  preparation  for  heaven.' 

B.  l  The  Hindoo  religion  is  a  good  religion.' 

/.  '  Tell  me  everything  which  you  can  say  in  its  favour,  and  I  will 
not  interrupt  you.  I  will  then  tell  you  something  about  Christianity, 
and  you  will  not  interrupt  me.  On  what  grounds  do  you  believe  that 
the  Hindoo  religion  is  of  divine  origin  V 

B.  (after  much  hesitation).  '  I  will  give  you  an  illustration.' 

I.  '  First  give  me  a  proof,  and  then  give  me  an  illustration. ' 


1829.]  FIKST  DISCUSSION  WITH  A  BRAHMAN.  63 

B.  'The  Hindoo  Shastres  are  written  in  Sanscrit.  Sanscrit  is 
the  language  of  God.  The  Hindoo  Shastres  are  therefore  from  God.' 

/.  '  Your  proof  has  no  weight.  Sanscrit  is  not  even  the  original 
language  of  mankind.  In  Sanscrit  many  false  stories  have  been 
written,  and  many  may  be  written.  Have  you  no  other  proof  to 
offer  ?' 

B.  (  No  other.' 

I.  '  The  evidences  of  Christianity  are  of  two  kinds,  external  and 
internal.'  (Here  a  summary  of  them  was  given.) 

B.  i  God  has  endowed  you  with  a  great  understanding ;  but  our 
Shastres  are  proved  by  their  prophecies  as  well  as  yours.' 

I.  '  Mention  some  of  your  prophecies  which  are  like  ours  in  their 
announcement  and  fulfilment.' 

B.  '  I  do  not  remember  any  at  present.' 

7.  *  I  exhort  you,  believe  in  Christ.' 

B.  '  Your  story  is  true  ;  but,  as  I  am  a  part  of  God,  I  know  that  I 
will  be  absorbed  in  the  divine  essence.' 

J.  '  You  are  not  a  part  of  God.  God  is  perfectly  holy  ;  you  are 
sinful.  God  is  infinitely  wise ;  you  are  limited  in  knowledge  and 
understanding.  Do  you  ever  suffer  mental  affliction  ?' 

B.  <Ido.' 

/.  '  If  your  mind  is  a  part  of  God,  why  does  God  afflict  himself  1 ' 
(No  answer.) 

I.  '  Your  spirit  will  go  to  God  after  death,  and  be  judged  by  God. 
If  you  believe  in  the  Saviour  you  will  go  to  heaven  ;  if  you  do  not 
believe  you  will  go  to  hell.' 

"  This  person  returned  to  me  late  in  the  evening.  I  gave  him 
some  accounts  of  the  contents  of  the  Bible  ;  and  informed  him  that  the 
chief  story  of  the  Old  Testament  was  that  the  Saviour  will  come,  and 
the  chief  story  of  the  New  was  that  the  Saviour  has  come.  One  of  the 
passages  of  the  Bible  which  Mr.  Webb  and  I  read  was  Isaiah,  47th 
chapter.  In  the  circumstances  in  which  we  were  placed  we  felt  its 
remarks  on  idol-worship  with  a  power  which  we  had  never  formerly 
experienced." 

"  29th  November.  Sabbath. — I  commenced  my  ministry 
among  the  natives  of  Bombay  by  preaching  to  about  twenty 
individuals  in  Mr.  Laurie's  house. 

"30th. — I  wrote  out  the  scrawl  copy  of  a  plan  of  the 
operations  which  I  intend  to  pursue  in  Bombay. 


64  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

"  1st  December. — I  purchased  some  furniture,  made  some 
fruitless  inquiries  about  a  house,  and  took  farewell  of  the 
Eev.  Mr.  Graves  previously  to  his  departure  to  Ceylon  for  the. 
benefit  of  his  health.  This  learned,  pious,  and  laborious  mis- 
sionary has  been  one  of  the  greatest  supporters  of  the  cause 
on  this  side  of  India.  His  second  edition  of  the  Maratha 
New  Testament,  which  he  has  just  now  completed,  is  a  work  of 
uncommon  merit.  It  is  distinguished  by  fidelity,  great  critical 
knowledge,  and  high  attainment  in  the  native  language. 

"  2d. — I  preached  to  a  company  of  the  natives  on  Colaba. 

"  3d. — I  paid  the  usual  respects  to  the  Governor,  who  has 
welcomed  me  to  Bombay  in  the  kindest  manner,  and  break- 
fasted with  him ;  and,  along  with  two  of  the  members  of  the 
corresponding  committee,  looked  at  several  empty  houses. 

"  4th,  5th. — I  spent  these  days  in  the  purchase  of  furni- 
ture, and  other  similar  business. 

"  6th.  Sabbath. — I  preached  to  the  congregation  of  the 
Scotch  Church  in  the  forenoon ;  and  to  twenty-four  natives 
in  the  afternoon. 

"  *7th. — I  wrote  an  advertisement  of  a  short  religious 
Magazine,  which  is  intended  principally  to  contain  a  record  of 
the  progress  of  the  Gospel ;  and  consulted  with  E.  T.  Webb, 
Esq.,  who,  along  with  myself,  Mr.  Stone  of  the  American 
Mission,  and  E.  C.  Money,  Esq.,  a  member  of  the  correspond- 
ing committee,  is  to  be  one  of  the  conductors  of  it,  about  some 
matters  connected  with  it. 

"  13th.  Sabbath. — I  addressed  twenty- two  natives  at  Mr. 
Laurie's  house. 

"  13th,~14:th. — I  engaged  with  Mr.  Laurie  in  examining 
and  transcribing  the  accompts  of  the  Mission,  and  in  pre- 
paring communications  for  the  directors. 

"  15th. — I  visited  the  house  which  has  been  taken  for  me  ; 
conversed  with  Narayan,  who  was  baptized  by  Mr.  Stevenson, 
and  made  arrangements  concerning  the  Mission.  In  the 


1829.]  SUPPKESSION  OF  SUTTEE.  65 

evening  I  heard  the  delightful  intelligence  that  an  order  for 
the  abolishment  of  Suttees  throughout  India  had  been  passed 
by  the  Governor -General  in  Council.  On  account  of  this 
measure  every  Christian  must  rejoice — (1.)  According  to  a 
moderate  computation  it  will  save  three  thousand  lives 
annually.  (2.)  It  will  tend  greatly  to  the  improvement  of  the 
moral  feelings  of  the  Hindoos.  What  can  be  more  shocking 
than  the  scenes  which  are  witnessed  at  the  funeral  pile  ? 
Connected  with  them  there  is  the  violation  of  every  principle 
of  humanity,  and  the  exhibition  of  the  most  sinful  cupidity — 
the  motive  by  which  relations  are  commonly  excited  to  the 
encouragement  of  the  horrid  deed.  (3.)  Its  tendency  will  be 
that  of  opening  the  eyes  of  the  Hindoos  to  the  enormities  of 
their  religion.  It  is  a  testimony  from  the  Government  which 
was  greatly  needed;  and  the  absence  of  which,  combined  with 
other  circumstances,  has,  I  have  found,  been  viewed  as  an 
encouragement.  When  it  has  been  for  some  time  put  in 
force,  it  will  permit  the  Hindoos,  with  greater  coolness  and 
with  less  prejudice,  to  contemplate  their  Shastres,  than  at 
present  when  they  see  their  most  revolting  recommendations 
reduced  to  practice.  The  Christian  public  are  undoubtedly 
bound  to  return  public  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  the 
favour  which  in  this  respect  He  has  shown  to  His  cause." 

The  Bombay  Missionary  Union,  consisting  of  the  London, 
Scottish,  and  American  missionaries  in  Surat,  Belgaum,  the 
Konkan,  Poona,  and  Bombay,  afterwards  addressed  a  formal 
resolution  to  Lord  William  Bentinck,  accompanied  by  this 
letter  from  Mr.  Wilson,  as  the  secretary — "  This  resolution  is 
a  faint  expression  of  the  feelings  of  those  who  formed  it.  It 
was  dictated  by  the  most  fervent  gratitude,  for  the  measure 
will  immortalise  the  name  of  him  who  carried  it  into  effect, 
and  which  will  be  fraught  with  unspeakable  blessings  to  the 
inhabitants  of  India  till  the  latest  generation.  The  mission- 
aries in  the  Bombay  Presidency  have  already  observed  a  day 


66  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1829. 

of  special  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  abolition  of  Suttees, 
and  they  now  beseech  Him  to  shower  down  His  best  blessings 
on  the  head  of  your  lordship,  whom  He  has  honoured  to  be 
the  instrument  of  communicating  an  unspeakable  blessing  to 
this  benighted  land."  This  was  the  first-fruit  of  the  deter- 
mination of  the  noblest  of  all  the  Governors-General,  who  had 
been  but  a  year  in  office,  to  put  down  with  one  hand  all  such 
crimes  against  humanity,  while  with  the  other  he  removed 
the  obstacles  to  the  progress  of  education  worthy  of  the  name. 
For  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  the  men  of  Serampore  been 
vainly  attacking  the  English  Government's  toleration  and  even 
encouragement  of  Suttee.  When  the  new  regulation  prohi- 
biting it  reached  Carey,  as  he  was  going  into  his  pulpit  on 
Sunday  morning,  he  gave  perhaps  the  most  pregnant  illustra- 
tion of  the  teaching  of  the  "  Lord  of  the  Sabbath,"  by  at  once 
sending  for  his  pundit  and  completing  the  translation  into 
Bengalee  before  night.  So  Mr.  Marshman,  his  successor  in 
the  office  of  Bengalee  translator,  tells  the  story.  It  was  a 
happy  augury  for  Wilson's  work  that  the  news  of  this  first 
blow  at  the  crimes  sanctioned  by  Brahmanism — and  that 
directed  according  to  the  teaching  of  the  purest  toleration — 
should  meet  him  as  he  began  his  career  of  philanthropy 
in  Bombay.  It  was  long  till  Suttee  was  abolished  in  the 
feudatory  States,  where  he  met  with  the  horror  more  than 
once.  But  since  the  Mutiny  no  Chief,  however  powerful,  has 
gone  unpunished  by  the  government  of  India  who  has  even 
connived  at  a  barbarity  which  the  freed  conscience  of  all 
India  soon  learned  to  condemn.  No  man,  no  poor  drugged 
widow  who  may  yet  never  have  been  a  wife,  dare  light  the 
Suttee's  pyre  with  impunity  in  the  most  remote  jungle  of  a 
native  State,  from  still  Brahman-ridden  Travancore  to  the  most 
fanatical  hamlet  of  the  deserts  of  Eajpootana. 

In  June  1830  we  find  Mr.  Wilson  writing  thus  to  Dr. 
Cormack  of  Stow : — "  We  intend  soon  to  take  up  the  subject 


1829.]  EARLY  WORK  IN  BOMBAY.  67 

of  infanticide.  Mr.  Money  (son  of  W.  T.  Money,  Esq.,  Mr. 
Wilberforce's  friend,)  told  me  that  he  had  some  thoughts  of 
memorialising  the  Supreme  Government.  Lord  W.  Bentinck, 
you  know,  has  abolished  Suttee ;  and  there  is  no  saying  what 
he  may  do.  A  Jain  priest  from  Kathiawar,  who  knew  General 
Walker,  is  almost  daily  with  me.  He  speaks  very  affection- 
ately of  him ;  but  he  says  that  they  have  allowed  the  good 
landobast  (arrangement)  which  was  made,  to  go  to  destruction. 
I  shall  give  you  an  account  of  the  movements  on  this  subject." 

The  closing  weeks  of  the  year  1829  were  spent  in  the 
organisation  of  the  infant  mission,  in  daily  preaching  to  the 
natives,  in  Sunday  sermons  to  the  British  sailors  in  the 
harbour  for  whom  Mr.  Wilson  always  cared,  and  in  the 
Scotch  Church.  Till  Christmas  he  was  the  guest  of  the  chap- 
lain Mr.  Laurie,  at  his  house  in  the  most  southerly  point  of  the- 
peninsula,  Colaba,  itself  a  separate  island  at  one  time.  The 
day  after  he  moved  into  his  own  house  in  the  Fort.  This 
seems  to  record  his  first  discussion  with  Parsees,  and  his  first 
visit  to  a  Hindoo  house  in  Bombay. 

"  30 ]th. — I  engaged,  with  Mr.  Allen,  in  preaching  to  the 
natives.  .  .  .  31s£. — Some  Parsees,  with  whom  we  sat  for 
a  considerable  time,  reprobated  the  monuments  in  the  English 
Church,  and  accused  the  English  of  idolatry.  We  had  a  very 
curious  conversation  with  them  on  this  subject.  I  was  happy 
to  inform  them  that  in  the  Scotch  Church  there  were  no 
images.  I  deeply  regret  that  there  should  be  any  occasion 
for  mistake  on  this  and  similar  subjects.  Christianity  cannot 
be  presented  to  the  heathen  in  too  simple  a  form.  Every 
practice  should  be  warranted  by  Scripture ;  this  is  the  only 
safe  principle.  I  preached  for  the  first  time  in  a  Hindoo 
house.  My  audience  was  larger  than  could  be  accommodated." 

On  the  same  ground  Bishop  Cotton  long  after  opposed  the 
introduction  of  a  reredos  with  figures  into  St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 
Calcutta,  where  it  was  placed  after  his  death ;  defending  his 


68  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1830. 

prohibition  on  the  ground  of  expediency,  however,  by  the  fact 
that  certain  Sikh  inquirers  had  been  scandalised  by  the  figures 
in  the  painted  glass  windows  of  some  of  the  Government 
churches.  The  varied  character  of  his  work  Mr.  Wilson  thus 
sums  up  at  this  early  period  : — 

"28th  January  1830. — My  engagements  have  been  so  numerous 
and  oppressive  that  I  have  had  no  disposition,  and  scarcely  any  time, 
to  make  even  the  shortest  entrances  in  my  journal.  I  will,  therefore, 
give  a  general  statement  of  the  arrangements  which  I  have  made,  and 
on  which  I  am  now  acting,  and  of  one  or  two  measures  which  have  been 
carried  into  effect.  On  Sabbaths  I  preach  to  a  congregation  of  natives 
amounting  to  between  forty  and  fifty.  About  the  half  of  them  are 
servants,  who  are  sent  by  their  masters  for  instruction.  The  remainder 
are  principally  led  to  attend  from  curiosity,  or  from  a  regard  to  their 
worldly  interests.  Christ  himself  was  called  to  address  those  who  fol- 
lowed Him  from  a  view  to  the  loaves  and  fishes.  I  occasionally  officiate 
in  the  Scotch  Church,  and  once  in  the  three  weeks  I  preach  on  board 
one  of  the  vessels  in  harbour  in  connection  with  the  Bombay  Seamen's 
Friend  Association. 

"  I  regularly  conduct  worship  in  the  Marathee  language,  and  deliver 
a  short  address  on  some  passage  of  Scripture  at  nine  o'clock  in  the 
mornings  at  my  own  house.  My  audience  varies  ;  but  on  some  occa- 
sions it  has  been  encouraging.  At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoons  I 
proceed  to  the  streets  of  the  city  to  declare  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation. 
When  I  am  in  a  public  situation  great  numbers  come  around  me  ;  and 
when  I  am  in  a  private  one,  I  have  the  advantage  of  being  heard  by 
all  those  who  see  me,  and  of  addressing  myself  with  greater  particu- 
larity to  individuals.  On  Tuesdays  and  Fridays  I  preach,  after  the  sun 
is  set,  in  native  houses.  My  services  on  these  occasions,  though  at- 
tended with  many  difficulties,  afford  me  considerable  comfort.  They 
are  conducted  at  the  time  when  the  impure  shastres  and  religious  stories 
are  read  to  the  people.  On  account  of  the  want  of  circulation  of 
air  in  the  houses  they  are  not  without  their  danger.  I  hope,  however, 
that  by-and-bye  I  will  be  able  to  find  some  places  where  I  may  regularly 
officiate  with  some  degree  of  comfort.  On  Saturday  evenings  I  have 
a  meeting  with  the  Beni- Israelites.  It  has  hitherto  proved  encouraging. 
Marathee  is  the  vernacular  language  of  this  people. 

"  Three  female  schools  have  been  instituted  by  Mrs.  Wilson.  The 
progress  of  the  pupils  is  far  from  being  encouraging.  Much  patience, 


1830.]  FIKST  GIRLS'  AND  BOYS'  SCHOOLS.  69 

attention  and  consideration  will  be  required  to  bring  them  into  such  a 
state  as  will  warrant  the  hope  that  they  will  be  useful  auxiliaries  in  the 
mission.  The  degraded  state  of  those  of  whom  they  are  composed  forms 
a  sufficiently  powerful  motive  for  exertion  in  their  behalf.  Manuel, 
who  was  lately  admitted  into  the  Church,  is  constantly  engaged  as  an 
inspector.  A  more  regular  attendance  and  efficient  discipline,  and  con- 
sequently stricter  economy,  are  secured  by  this  means  than  could  possibly 
be  obtained  by  another  measure.  The  children  are  as  frequently  visited 
by  Mrs.  "Wilson  as  her  health  will  permit ;  and  the  readers  will  be  re- 
quired at  least  once  in  the  week  to  attend  at  the  house  for  particular 
instruction. 

"  I  have  established  two  boys'  schools,  which,  as  far  as  is  practicable, 
are  conducted  on  the  principles  pursued  in  the  Sessional  School  of  Edin- 
burgh. I  have  been  much  disappointed  with  regard  to  the  number  of 
scholars.  The  indigenous  schools,  and  the  schools  of  the  Native  Educa- 
tion Society,  are  so  arranged  in  Bombay,  I  find,  as  to  prevent  the  col- 
lecting of  any  very  large  number  of  boys  in  connection  with  any  of  the 
missions.  I  do  not,  however,  despair  of  seeing  an  improvement. 
When  the  discipline  of  my  schools  is  better  understood,  and  when  its 
fruits  become  apparent,  and  when  the  hostility  of  neighbouring  teachers 
begins  to  cool,  I  expect  to  see  an  increase  in  the  number  of  scholars. 
Pedro  is  employed  as  inspector.  One  of  the  schools  is  under  my  own 
roof. 

"  In  connection  with  my  labours  some  pleasing  circumstances  have 
occurred.  A  Veishya,  who  is  engaged  by  me  as  a  schoolmaster,  and 
who  had  daily  opportunities  of  hearing  the  gospel,  about  a  fortnight 
after  he  entered  into  the  service  of  the  mission  began  to  shew  signs  of 
seriousness.  He  commenced  the  perusal  of  the  Scriptures,  and  dili- 
gently perused  them  when  he  could  find  leisure.  I  frequently  heard 
him  engaged  in  this  exercise,  and  his  tone  indicated  solemnity.  I  con- 
cluded from  what  I  observed  on  several  occasions  that  he  wished  to  get 
private  instruction  from  me  ;  but  as  I  thought  the  voluntary  expres- 
sion of  his  desire  would  enable  me  perhaps  to  throw  some  light  on  his 
character,  I  took  no  notice  of  what  passed  before  me.  In  short  time, 
however,  he  informed  me  that  he  wished  to  be  considered  as  a  religious 
inquirer,  and  solicited  permission  to  attend  me  on  the  evenings.  I 
cheerfully  acceded  to  his  proposal  ;  and  for  the  last  six  weeks  he  has 
regularly  attended  me.  I  am  much  pleased  with  his  attention  and 
progress,  and  the  modesty  of  his  professions.  I  have  not  yet  considered 
it  proper  to  speak  to  him  on  the  subject,  because  it  is  comparatively 
easy  for  a  person  under  the  influence  of  strong  impressions,  which  may 


70  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1830. 

prove  not  to  be  the  work  of  the  divine  Spirit,  to  consent  to  any  pro- 
posals which  may  be  made  on  this  subject ;  and  because,  when  the 
general  deceitfulness  of  the  Hindoo  is  considered  it  appears  necessary, 
if  a  wish  is  entertained  to  preserve  the  Church  in  a  state  of  purity,  to 
give  to  all  catechumens  a  longer  time  of  probation  than  may  be  neces- 
sary in  other  circumstances. 

"  A  few  weeks  ago  a  Brahman  was  executed  for  murder.  I  had  an 
opportunity  of  attending  him  in  the  jail,  and  conversing  with  him  on 
the  subject  of  religion.  As  he  did  not  perfectly  understand  Marathee 
I  asked  the  assistance  of  Captain  Molesworth  and  Lieutenant  Candy, 
who  addressed  him  in  Hindee.  He  appeared  to  be  a  good  deal 
affected  with  divine  truth  ;  and,  apparently  under  its  influence,  he 
destroyed  his  string,  and  constituted  Messrs.  Candy,  Birdwood,  and 
myself  the  guardians  of  his  child,  which  he  wished  to  be  educated  in 
the  Christian  faith.  On  the  day  previous  to  his  death,  however,  he  was 
led  to  borrow  another  string.  When  we  observed  it  upon  him  we 
remonstrated  with  him.  He  said  that  he  was  led  to  wear  it  in  order 
that  his  body  might  be  burned  by  his  caste  ;  that  he  put  no  trust  in 
it ;  and  that  we  could  not  deprive  him  of  the  faith  in  the  Saviour,  which 
had  been  imparted  to  him.  As  he  was  about  to  enter  into  the  eternal 
world  we  thought  it  proper  to  occupy  his  time  by  directly  communi- 
cating instruction  to  him.  He  died  calling  on  the  name  of  Jesus  ;  and 
left  us  in  such  a  state  of  hope  as  warranted  us  to  say  that  perhaps  he 
was  a  believer. 

"  I  lately  had  some  intercourse  with  a  very  intelligent  member  of 
the  Eomish  Church  from  the  south  of  India,  and  very  free  discussion 
respecting  the  apostasy  of  the  body  to  which  he  belonged.  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  my  instructions  were  blessed  to  him.  When 
leaving  Bombay  he  expressed  his  horror  at  most  of  the  abominations 
of  Popery,  his  determination  to  read  and  study  the  ,  Scriptures  for  him- 
self, and  his  eagerness  to  correspond  with  me  on  the  subject  of  religion. 
He  requested  some  bibles  and  tracts  for  distribution,  and  offered  to 
translate  into  Portuguese  any  tract  (on  the  corruptions  of  the  Eomish 
Church)  which  I  might  compose.  He  was  greatly  benefited  by  the 
intercourse  which  he  had  with  Pedro  Lewis. 

"  I  have  a  monthly  meeting  with  some  European  soldiers.  There  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  in  connection  with  them  the  divine  bless- 
ing has  rested  on  my  labours. 

"  I  have  been  a  good  deal  tried  by  the  conduct  of  Narayan  Shune- 
kur,  who  was  baptized  in  May  last  by  Mr.  Stevenson.  He  has  on  more 
than  one  occasion  shown  great  aversion  to  religious  ordinances  and  re- 


1830.]       THE  EEAL  DIFFICULTIES  OF  A  MISSIONARY'S  LIFE.         71 

ligious  instruction.  He  is  engaged  as  a  printer  with  Captain  Moles- 
worth,  who  lives  in  my  neighbourhood,  and  his  attendance  on  me  has 
not  accorded  with  his  opportunities.  Pedro  and  Manuel  give  me  great 
satisfaction.  The  latter  individual  has  commenced  the  study  of  Mara- 
thee. 

"  A  young  gentleman  in  the  Civil  Service  of  the  Company  who  was 
brought  under  serious  impressions  during  our  voyage  to  India,  makes 
a  decided  profession  of  Christianity  ;  and,  in  the  judgment  of  his  pious 
acquaintances,  adorns  the  doctrine  of  his  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ.  I  could  mention  some  other  facts  of  a  similar  nature,  which  I 
have  no  doubt  would  prove  highly  gratifying  to  you.  Many  reasons, 
however,  will  occur  to  you  which  will  lead  you  to  perceive  the  pro- 
priety of  my  not  mentioning  them  to  you.  A  weekly  meeting  is  held 
at  my  house  for  prayer  and  conference  on  the  Scriptures  ;  the  average 
attendance  is  that  of  sixteen  ladies  and  gentlemen. 

"  I  am  much  pleased -with  Bombay  as  a  missionary  station,  and  when 
I  reflect  on  the  great  door  of  usefulness  which  has  been  opened  to  me, 
I  am  much  depressed  with  my  insufficiency  for  the  discharge  of  my 
duties.  The  real  difficulties  of  a  missionary's  life  are  little  known  and 
felt  by  the  religious  public.  To  encounter  them  and  overcome  them, 
much  faith,  courage,  compassion,  wisdom,  perseverance,  and  prayerful- 
ness  is  required.  '  Can  these  dry  bones  live  ?'  is  a  question  which 
thrusts  itself  upon  me  whenever  I  am  about  to  deliver  the  message  of 
salvation.  The  countenances  of  my  auditors  betray  pride,  stupidity, 
superstition,  unconcern.  My  addressing  them  calls  forth  wrath,  folly. 
My  leaving  them  affords  them  an  opportunity  of  giving  vent  to  their  evil 
dispositions.  When  I  repeat  my  visits  to  them  then  I  see  little  but 
aversion.  Circumstances  are  not  always  of  this  kind,  for  there  is  fre- 
quently attention,  consideration,  and  impression  manifested  by  the  poor 
Hindoos  ;  but,  when  general  circumstances  are  considered,  it  may  be 
asked  '  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ? '  Were  it  not  the  considera- 
tion that  we  are  ambassadors  for  Christ,  that  the  people  around  us  are 
perishing  for  lack  of  knowledge,  that  the  Word  and  Spirit  of  God  are 
omnipotent,  and  that  the  promises  of  God  are  on  our  side,  I  do  not 
know  what  could  support  us  or  induce  us  to  declare  divine  truth. 
There  are,  I  am  happy  to  say,  very  promising  appearances  in  different 
parts  of  India.  In  due  season  we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not." 

The  experience  of  country  and  city,  of  preaching  and 
teaching,  of  creeds  and  customs,  all  based  on  familiarity  with 
the  Marathee  tongue,  which  Mr.  Wilson  had  thus  crowded 


72  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1830. 

into  the  first  year  of  his  life  in  Western  India,  fitted  him  to 
line  out  a  policy  for  himself,  and  to  lay  the  foundations  of  his 
mission  deep  and  broad.  He  was  saved  from  the  errors  of 
his  predecessors,  and  in  confidential  communications  to  the 
Society  at  home  he  did  not  hesitate  to  exercise  that  inde- 
pendence of  judgment  and  of  action  which  he  had  claimed 
from  the  first,  and  without  which  much  that  was  unique  in 
his  powers  and  his  methods  might  have  been  lost  to  Bombay 
in  the  uniform  level  of  average  work.  In  this  passage  of  such 
a  letter  to  the  secretary  of  the  Society  he  anticipates,  at  that 
early  date,  the  mistake  which  many  missionaries  have  begun 
to  avoid  only  in  very  recent  years.  That  is,  witness-bearing, 
rather  than  the  mere  denunciation  or  exposure  of  idolatry,  is 
the  key  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  the  natives  of  India. 
"  In  reference  to  the  mode  of  addressing  the  natives  pur- 
sued by  my  brethren,  I  have  been  led  to  entertain  and  express 
the  deepest  regrets.  With  one  exception,  as  far  as  I  can  form 
a  judgment,  they  are  too  frequently  inclined  to  speak  on  the 
folly  of  idolatry;  and  to  neglect  the  preaching  of  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ ;  and  to  present  divine  truth  to 
the  minds  of  the  heathen  in  any  manner  which  is  destitute  of 
solemnity.  I  know  that  their  temptations  to  pursue  this 
course  are  great.  It  is  the  easiest ;  it  excites  the  feelings  of 
the  hearer  without  any  difficulty.  It  is,  however,  unprofitable ; 
and  I  believe  that  it  is  one  of  the  chief  reasons  of  the  com- 
paratively small  success  of  modern  missions.  It  is  deceitful ; 
a  missionary  falls  into  it  without  his  being  aware  of  it,  and 
perseveres  in  it  at  the  very  time  when  he  declares  that  an 
opposite  course  is  his  duty  and  his  aim.  It  tempts  to  the  use 
of  inconclusive  arguments ;  it  excites  a  thousand  unprofitable 
objections;  produces  a  bad  impression  on  the  heathen,  and 
destroys  a  missionary's  temper.  It  is  the  bane  of  our  Mission, 
and,  I  believe,  is  the  great  cause  of  the  comparatively  small 
success  of  modern  missions. 


1830.]  HOW  MISSIONARIES  SHOULD  EVANGELISE.  73 

"The  preparations  which  are  made  for  addressing  the 
heathen  are  not  so  regular  and  extensive  as  could  be  wished 
for.  This,  I  believe,  originated  in  a  great  degree  in  the  dis- 
traction which  was  produced  by  the  charge  of  too  many 
schools ;  and  it  is  persevered  in  more  from  the  manner  in 
which  the  labours  are  arranged  and  conducted  than  from  in- 
dolence. On  this  account,  however,  it  ought  not  to  be  over- 
looked. When  united  with  an  incorrect  pronunciation, 
proceeding  from  a  want  of  attention  in  the  early  stage  of 
study,  or  from  carelessness  on  the  part  of  the  pundits,  and 
with  a  violation  of  the  rules  of  concord,  on  which  the  Mara- 
thas  lay  great  stress,  it  forms  a  serious  evil.  .  .  . 

"  I  thank  God  for  enabling  me  to  make  much  greater  pro- 
gress in  Marathee  than  I  expected.  I  fear,  however,  that  I 
may  have  in  some  degree  injured  my  health.  As  I  did  not 
feel  the  climate  so  irksome  as  I  expected,  my  attention  was 
not  directed  to  this  subject  till  a  few  weeks  ago  I  received  a 
letter  from  Mr.  Eobson,  the  author  of  St.  Helena  Memoir, 
who  has  been  residing  at  Hurnee,  and  I  found  some  pain  in 
the  region  of  my  heart."  It  was  from  that  region  that  his 
fatal  illness  proceeded. 

The  financial  affairs  of  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society 
were,  for  local  purposes,  managed  by  a  corresponding  com- 
mittee, chiefly  of  laymen,  at  Bombay.  After  some  hesitation 
whether  he  should  not  begin  operations  at  Poona,  that  com- 
mittee had  agreed  with  Mr.  Wilson  that  he  should  remain  in 
the  capital.  "  I  desire,"  he  wrote  to  the  directors  at  home,  "  to 
express  my  deep-felt  gratitude  for  calling  me  to  labour  in  a 
large  town.  It  is  evident  that  cities  afford  peculiar  facilities 
for  missionary  exertion.  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  lead  us  to 
conclude  that  in  the  Apostolical  age  the  efforts  of  the  servants 
of  Christ  were  chiefly  directed  to  them,  and  from  this  consider- 
ation the  word  '  pagan '  came  to  be  applied  to  the  heathen." 
He  accordingly  drew  up,  at  the  end  of  1829,  the  "  Plan  of  opera- 


74  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1830. 

tions  which  I  intend  to  pursue  in  the  island  of  Bombay." 
He  accompanied  it  by  detailed  regulations  for  the  monitors 
or  pupil  teachers,  the  masters,  and  the  Christian  inspectors  of 
his  schools.  The  whole  scheme  shows  a  rare  foresight  as 
well  as  the  practical  experience  of  the  educationist;  and  it  has, 
indeed,  been  carried  out  in  more  recent  times,  in  most  of  its 
principles,  in  the  village  circle,  and  other  primary  vernacular 
schools  established  by  the  various  governments  in  India  by 
means  of  a  school-rate. 

"  In  discharging  the  duties  of  my  office,  I  shall  devote  my  un- 
divided attention  to  the  work  of  preaching  among  the  heathen  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.  The  different  classes  of  the  native 
community,  as  far  as  I  have  the  power  of  addressing  them,  I  shall 
consider  as  the  objects  of  my  ministry.  In  endeavouring  to  bring 
before  them  the  gospel  of  salvation  I  shall  direct  my  chief  efforts  to 
the  work  of  personally  declaring  to  them  the  truths  of  Scripture.  I 
propose  to  have  a  regular  service  at  my  own  house  in  the  mornings, 
with  a  view  to  the  instruction  of  my  domestics,  and  of  such  individuals 
as  may  be  induced  to  attend.  I  propose,  in  the  afternoons,  to  address 
the  natives  in  the  streets  of  the  city  ;  and  in  the  evenings,  after  the  sun 
is  set,  to  deliver  prepared  discourses,  during  three  days  of  the  week,  in 
such  of  the  native  houses  as  I  may  be  able  to  engage  for  that  purpose. 
The  last-mentioned  arrangement,  though  it  is  novel,  appears  to  me  to 
be  particularly  calculated  for  usefulness.  It  will  be  conducted  at  a 
time  when  the  natives  can  with  peculiar  facility  be  attracted  together, 
and  in  a  manner  which  will  prevent  the  frequent  interruptions  with 
which  a  missionary  is  disturbed. 

"  With  a  view  to  suiting  my  labours  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
young,  and  in  the  hope  of  conciliating  their  parents  and  introducing 
the  gospel  into  their  private  circles,  I  intend  to  devote  a  share  of  my 
attention  to  Christian  schools.  I  propose — exclusive  of  a  Portuguese 
school,  which  I  may  be  able  to  establish — to  form  two  such  institutions, 
capable  of  containing  each  about  200  boys  ;  and  to  conduct  them  on 
the  principles  which  have  been  so  well  illustrated  by  John  Wood,  Esq., 
Advocate,  in  the  Sessional  School  of  Edinburgh,  and  which  have  been 
introduced  into  some  of  the  most  respectable  seminaries  in  Scotland. 
By  confining  myself  to  the  number  now  stated,  and  by  conducting  them 
in  the  manner  proposed,  I  hope  to  be  able  to  exercise  a  vigilant  super- 


1830.]  RULES  FOR  PRIMARY  VERNACULAR  SCHOOLS.  75 

intendence  over  them,  frequently  to  address  the  children,  to  pre- 
vent heathen  practices  in  them  ;  and  I  cherish  the  belief  that,  by  the 
divine  blessing,  the  object  which  a  missionary  society  ought  ever  to 
have  in  view  may  be  in  some  degree  accomplished  by  them.  For 
conducting  the  business  of  them,  it  will  be  necessary  to  appoint  a  head 
master  for  each  of  them,  and  instructed  monitors  for  each  class,  who 
shall  receive  a  small  pay  ;  and  for  preventing  deception,  and  securing 
their  Christian  character,  it  will  be  expedient  to  appoint  an  inspector 
in  whom  I  can  trust,  and  who  will  report  to  me  the  deviations  from 
the  rules  which  may  be  laid  down  for  their  government.  Hindoo 
teachers  can  easily  be  procured.  For  monitors  I  intend,  in  the  first 
instance,  to  apply  to  the  American  Mission.  I  have  two  individuals  in 
view  who  will  be  suitable  as  inspectors.  According  to  a  calculation 
which  has  been  made,  the  expense  of  maintaining  these  office-bearers 
will  allow  education  to  be  conducted  at  a  rate  which  is  somewhat  cheaper 
than  in  the  generality  of  mission  schools  in  the  west  of  India.  Female 
education  will  receive  all  that  attention  which  circumstances  will  permit. 
The  circulation  of  the  Scriptures  and  tracts,  and  those  opportunities  of 
usefulness  which  though  not  of  a  stated,  are  of  a  highly  important 
nature,  will  of  course  be  attended  to  in  their  proper  order. 

"  Circumstances  may  suggest  a  modification  of  my  present  plans,  or 
prevent,  in  some  degree,  their  being  carried  into  execution.  I  trust, 
however,  that  my  principles  will  not  be  lost  sight  of." * 

"KEGULATIONS  framed  for  the  Management  of  the  Schools, 
drawn  up  on  7th  December  1829. 

"  Monitors. — 1.  No  person  shall  be  employed  as  a  monitor  who  has 
not  made  considerable  progress  in  his  education.  2.  Every  monitor 
shall  receive  a  small  sum  as  a  remuneration  for  his  labours.  3.  The 
monitors  shall  be  regularly  instructed  by  the  missionary  in  the  tasks 
which  they  will  be  required  to  teach.  4.  The  duties  of  the  monitors 
shall  be  to  facilitate  and  secure  the  acquisition  of  the  tasks,  and  to 
examine  their  pupils  respecting  their  meaning.  5.  All  difficulties  re- 
specting terms,  sentences,  or  allusions,  which  occur  to  the  monitors,  and 
which  cannot  be  solved  by  the  master  or  inspector,  shall  be  carefully 
marked  and  stated  to  the  missionary. 

1  It  was  in  1791  that,  as  Southey  describes,  the  Madras  chaplain  Dr. 
Andrew  Bell  developed,  from  the  simple  custom  of  the  native  school  children 
writing  on  the  sand  with  their  fingers,  the  whole  monitorial  and  intellectual 
system  of  instruction  which  became  so  famous. 


76  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1830. 

(t  Master. — 1.  No  person  shall  be  employed  in  this  situation  who  is  a 
Gooroo  (priest)  in  any  temple,  who  does  jiot  promise  to  give  a  true  state- 
ment of  the  object  of  the  schools  to  parents  and  others  interested  in 
them,  and  who  does  not  bind  himself  to  abstain  from  teaching  heathen- 
ism, and  to  comply  with  the  directions  which  may  be  given  to  him. 
2.  The  pay  of  the  master  shall,  as  far  as  possible,  depend  on  the  number 
of  children,  the  regularity  of  their  attendance,  and  their  progress  in 
education.  3.  The  duties  of  masters  shall  be  to  superintend  and 
instruct  the  monitors,  to  exercise  discipline,  and  to  use  every  lawful 
endeavour  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  schools. 

"  Inspector. — 1.  Every  inspector  shall  be  a  professing  Christian.  2. 
Inspectors  shall  be  required  to  remain  in  the  schools  during  the  usual 
hours  of  teaching,  to  mark  the  attendance,  to  prevent  heathen  practices, 
to  report  all  deviations  from  the  rules,  and  to  use  their  endeavours  by 
visitation  or  otherwise,  to  induce  the  adult  population  to  attend  the 
evening  services  which  may  be  conducted  with  a  view  to  their  benefit. 

"  JOHN  WILSON." 

Of  the  eight  members  of  the  corresponding  committee 
at  that  time,  all  became  the  fast  friends  of  Mr.  Wilson, 
and  all  were  distinguished  by  their  high  character  as  officials 
and  merchants.  Besides  the  Scotch  chaplains  there  were  the 
Hon.  Mr.  Farish,  who  officiated  for  some  time  as  Governor ; 
Mr.  E.  T.  Webb  of  the  same  civil  service ;  Mr.  E.  C.  Money, 
Persian  secretary  to  government,  whose  name  is  perpetuated 
by  a  missionary  institution;  Dr.  Maxwell  of  the  Medical 
Board ;  Dr.  Smyttan,  who  became  Mr.  Wilson's  most  intimate 
friend ;  and  Mr.  M'Grigor.  With  friends  and  scholars  like 
Captain  Molesworth  and  Captain  Candy,  Mr.  Hynd  from 
Liverpool,  and  the  various  missionaries,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson 
soon  became  the  centre  of  that  gradually  extending  society 
of  thoughtful  and  cultured  persons  into  which,  in  time,  he 
was  to  introduce  the  native  gentlemen  of  the  city.  As  indis- 
pensable to  such  varied  and  aggressive  work  as  he  had 
undertaken,  Mr.  Wilson  had  originated  the  oldest  Christian 
periodical  in  India,  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator.  The 
now  rare  sets  of  this  monthly  magazine,  which  was  continued 


1831.]    LORD  CLARE  ON  THE  WANT  OF  ENGLISH  EDUCATION.      77 

for  thirty  years,  form  an  invaluable  record  of  progress  in  all 
forms  in  Western'  India  and  the  adjoining  countries.  In  that 
appeared  the  literary  fruits  of  Wilson's  ceaseless  labours  of 
every  kind. 

Thus  far  the  missionary  policy  of  Mr.  Wilson  does  not 
seem  to  have  included  a  high  class  English  school  or  college. 
The  central  school  of  the  Native  Education  Society  professed 
to  provide  for  the  increasing  number  of  Hindoos  and  Parsees 
who  sought  English  for  commercial  or  official  use ;  and  the 
scheme  given  above  provided  for  the  Portuguese.  As  yet 
Lord  William  Bentinck  had  not  moved,  Macaulay  had  not 
taken  his  seat  in  council  as  first  law  member,  and  Dr.  Duff 
was  only  making  his  way  to  Calcutta  through  the  perils  of 
repeated  shipwreck.  But  Mr.  Wilson  had  early  taken  steps 
"  to  begin  instructing  the  natives  in  the  English  language." 
A  letter  from  his  friend  Mr.  E.  C.  Money  to  the  Governor, 
written  on  the  4th  August  1831,  called  forth  this  reply  from 
Lord  Clare,  showing  that  almost  everything  remained  to  be 
done  : — 

u  DAPOORIE,  August  20th,  1831. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR — A  variety  of  business  has  prevented  me  from 
sooner  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  4th  of  this 
month.  At  present  to  begin  instructing  the  natives  in  the  English 
language  would  appear  a  world  of  infinite  labour  and  difficulty,  and 
I  should  like  to  learn  whether  any  and  what  progress  has  been 
made  in  the  schools  already  established  towards  giving  them  any 
such  knowledge.  I  apprehend  there  are  at  present  so  few  teachers 
who  know  English  it  would  be  very  difficult  indeed  even  to  make  a 
beginning.  I  went  through  the  government  Institution  lately  at 
Poona,  and  though  the  boys  had  made  a  wonderful  progress  in  arith- 
metic, and  even  mathematics,  neither  they  nor  their  instructor  spoke 
one  word  of  our  language.  I  do  not  know  how  you  are  provided  in 
this  respect  in  the  schools  at  Bombay,  and  unless  instruction  in  the 
English  language  is  made  a  necessary  part  of  every  boy's  education^ 
who  is  brought  up  in  every  seminary  patronised  by  government,  but 
little  progress  will  be  made. 

"  Much  has  been  done  in  the  way  of  education  since  then  in  most 


78  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1832. 

parts  of  India,  but  we  must  not  attempt  too  much  at  first.  That  is  a 
subject,  however,  which  merits  consideration  ;  at  present  I  confess  I  do 
not  see  how  to  make  even  a  beginning. 

"  You  are  quite  right,  I  believe,  in  what  you  say  respecting  infanti- 
cide in  Kutch.  That  horrid  practice  has  hardly  been  even  checked, 
and  after  all  our  endeavours  we  have  done  but  little  towards  reform- 
ing, I  believe,  the  most  unprincipled  and  profligate  race  in  India. 
Threats  and  exhortations  have  been  equally  disregarded,  but  we  must 
not  be  discouraged.  The  abolition  of  Suttee  was  at  one  time  believed 
to  be  almost  impracticable. 

"  I  hear  Mr.  Elphinstone's  portrait  is  very  ill  placed.  I  wish  it 
were  in  the  Town  Hall. — Yours,  my  dear  Sir,  faithfully, 

"CLARE." 

It  was  on  the  29th  March  1832  that  the  germ  of  what 
became  the  General  Assembly's  Institution  was  established  as 
the  "  Ambrolie  English  School,  connected  with  the  Scottish 
Mission."  "  This  infant  institution,"  as  it  is  described  in  the 
first  year's  report,  was  under  the  immediate  eye  of  Mr.  Wilson 
as  its  superintendent.  Books  as  well  as  teachers  had  to  be 
created  for  it,  such  as  Marathee  and  Goojaratee  translations 
of  the  English  Instructor,  the  Catechism,  and  Dr.  A.  Thom- 
son's text-books,  and  a  work  entitled  Idiomatical  Exercises 
in  English  and  Marathee,  "  to  aid  the  natives  in  understand- 
ing the  structure  and  vocables  of  the  English  language."  In 
the  first  year  the  school  was  attended  by  415  Hindoos  and  3 
Parsees.  Fees  were  exacted,  and  the  Christian  character  of 
the  education  was  insisted  on  from  the  first.  The  highest 
prize  was  a  sum  of  fifty  rupees  (£5)  for  the  best  essay  on  the 
spirituality  of  God,  open  to  those  youths  "  who  attended  the 
Wednesday  evening  lectures  of  the  Rev.  John  Wilson." 

The  population  of  Bombay,  according  to  the  census  of  1833, 
consisted  of  18,376  Christians,  principally  Roman  Catholics ; 
143,298  Hindoos,  including  Jains;  49,928  Muhammadans, 
with  Arabs  and  Persians ;  20,184  Parsees,  and  2,246  Jews, 
including  native  or  Beni-Israelites.  The  total  population,  or 
234,032,  was  slightly  above  that  to  which  Edinburgh  and 


1832.]  HIS  SYSTEM  CONTKASTED  WITH  DR.  DUFF'S.  79 

Leith  together  have  grown  at  the  present  time.  Such  was 
Mr.  Wilson's  field,  and  it  was  to  go  on  increasing  threefold  as 
his  labours  for  the  good  of  its  varied  communities  extended. 

Calcutta  and  Bombay,  Eastern  and  Western  India,  pre- 
sented, in  their  native  communities,  needs  which  were  supplied 
from  the  first  by  the  systems  of  Duff  and  Wilson.  These 
differed  indeed  in  the  priority  of  time  and  importance  given  to 
certain  methods  of  operation,  but  they  all  the  more  effectually 
secured  the  same  great  end  of  saturating  Asiatic  society  and 
government  progress  with  Christian  truth  conveyed  by  the 
most  intellectual  methods.  Duff's  instrument  was  the  English 
language,  and  it  was  at  first  applied  exclusively  to  boys  and 
young  men.  Wilson's  instrument  was  the  vernaculars  of  a 
varied  population — the  Marathee,  Goojaratee,  Hindostanee, 
Hebrew,  and  Portuguese ;  with  Persian,  Arabic,  and  Sanscrit 
in  reserve  for  the  learned  classes.  These  he  acquired  and 
fluently  used,  often  in  provincial  dialects  too,  in  a  few  years, 
in  preaching  and  in  teaching  both  girls  or  women,  and  boys  or 
young  men.  But  the  Calcutta  missionary  no  more  neglected 
Bengalee  and  even  Sanskrit  as  his  college  developed,  or 
female  education  as  society  advanced  in  intelligence,  than  his 
great  Bombay  colleague  was  indifferent  to  English.  It  was  a 
happy  adaptation  of  the  men  to  the  conditions,  which  indeed 
helped  to  make  them  what  they  became,  that  English  held  the 
first  place  with  the  one,  and  a  purified  Orientalism  was  long 
the  most  important  weapon  of  the  other.  Looking  back  half 
a  century,  those  who  know  the  social  and  spiritual  state  of 
both  Eastern  and  Western  India  may  fancy  that  a  fuller 
adoption  of  Orientalism  in  the  former,  and  an  earlier  use  of 
English  for  the  highest  instruction  in  the  latter,  would  have 
been  better  for  both  the  missions,  and  for  the  advancement  of 
India.  But  that  is  only  to  forget  that  such  an  arrangement 
would  have  paralysed  Duff  in  his  fight  beside  Macaulay,  with 
the  fanatical  orientalist  party  in  the  government,  without 


80  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1832. 

whose  defeat  progress  of  any  kind  would  have  been  impossible; 
while  it  would  have  long  postponed,  if  it  did  not  altogether 
change,  that  hold  which  Wilson  obtained  on  the  affections  and 
the  intellect  of  the  native  communities,  which  was  due  to  his 
oriental  lore  and  his  more  than  Asiatic  courtesy  and  grace. 
In  truth,  the  historian  of  British  India  who  can  estimate 
causes  aright,  will  put  side  by  side  with  Duff's  opening  of 
the  boys'  English  school  in  Calcutta  in  August  1830,  the 
establishment  of  Mrs.  Wilson's  first  of  many  female  schools 
in  Bombay  in  December  1829.  Both  were  seeds  which  have 
already  grown  into  great  trees.  Each  represented  that  side 
of  civilisation  without  which  the  other  becomes  pernicious. 
Each  reacted  on  the  other.  Every  succeeding  generation  of 
young  men  demands  educated  women  in  increasing  numbers. 
These  bring  up  better  instructed  children ;  and  in  instances 
no  longer  rare,  present  the  spectacle,  unknown  to  Asia  all 
through  its  history,  of  pure  and  happy  family  life.  Mrs. 
Wilson's  organisation  and  management  of  the  female  schools, 
her  frequent  contributions  to  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator, 
and  her  superintendence  of  the  mission  during  her  husband's 
absence  on  preaching  tours,  were  interrupted  only  for  a  time 
by  the  birth  of  four  children,  of  whom  two  sons  survive. 

Although  thus  carefully  laying  the  foundations  of  his 
missionary  policy  and  machinery,  and  well  aware  that  for  many 
a  day  his  must  be  a  work  of  preparation,  Mr.  Wilson  from 
the  first  expected  and  worked  for  baptised  converts.  He  did 
not  lose  himself  in  his  system,  nor  did  he  loftily  or  vaguely 
look  for  a  harvest  from  the  seed  he  was  hourly  sowing,  only 
in  the  distant  future.  He  rather  tested,  improved,  and 
extended  his  system,  by  the  assured  belief  that  the  Divine 
Spirit  would  show  immediate  or  speedy  fruit  such  as  his  few 
predecessors  had  not  witnessed  in  Western  India.  He  was  -a 
man  to  make  and  follow  his  own  policy,  not  theirs ;  while  he 
was  too  wise  and  kindly  to  neglect  their  experience.  So  he 


1832.]  FORMATION  OF  THE  FIRST  NATIVE  CHURCH.  81 

formed  a  native  church  in  Bombay  in  February  1831,  two 
years  after  landing,  and  a  year  after  evangelising  the  island. 
He  thus  announces  the  fact  to  his  father,  himself  an  elder  of 
Lauder  Kirk,  and  familiar  with  the  ecclesiastical  organisation  : 
"  I  formed  a  native  church  on  Presbyterian  principles.  Eight 
members  joined  it ;  and  I  administered  the  Lord's  Supper  to 
them  and  to  some  Europeans."  The  draft  minute  of  this 
transaction,  the  beginning  of  a  church  which  he  watched  and 
helped  till  it  grew  to  be  the  vigorous  body  it  now  is,  worship- 
ping in  its  own  fine  ecclesiastical  building,  has  a  peculiar 
interest  as  a  contribution  to  these  modern  "Acts  of  the 
Apostles."  In  the  half  century  since  those  days,  when  the 
number  of  the  Protestant  native  church  in  India,  in  all  its 
branches,  has  grown  to  be  above  the  third  of  a  million,  and  is 
increasing  annually,  according  to  the  official  census,  at  the 
rate  of  6J  per  cent,  contrasted  with  the  half  per  cent  of 
Hindoos,  all  the  foreign  missionaries  have  long  since  agreed 
that  the  Church  of  India  must,  as  it  grows  to  support  itself  more 
largely,  determine  its  own  organisation,  free  from  the  divisions 
of  the  western  sects  and  historical  creeds.  This  too  was  Mr. 
Wilson's  view ;  but  in  1831  what  so  well  fitted  as  presbytery 
for  the  infant  church  ? — 

"Bombay,  4th  February  1831. 

"  This  day,  in  the  house  of  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  minister  of  the 
gospel  in  connection  with  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  missionary  from 
Scotland,  amongst  some  converted  Hindoos  and  others  a  native  church 
was  formed.  John  Wilson,  the  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  stated  that  he 
was  licensed  as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  by  the  Presbytery  of  Lauder 
on  6th  May  1828  ;  that  he  was  ordained  to  the  office  of  the  ministry 
in  the  same  place  on  24th  June  1828,  and  that  he  arrived  in  India  on 
the  13th  February  1829.  Mr.  Wilson  baptized  on  the  2d  of  January 
in  his  own  house  Heer  Chund,  Ransod,  Saha  Wanee,  and  Dewukee,  a 
Hindoo  woman.  He  also  declared  worthy  of  communion  on  the  same 
day  John  Rennie  Baptist,  an  African  by  descent,  who  had  been  baptized 
in  his  youth.  On  the  17th  January  1831,  he  baptized  Raghoba 
Balajee  Weishya.  Along  with  these  Margaret  Bayne  Wilson,  the 

G 


82  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1832. 

spouse  of  Mr.  Wilson,  who  had  been  married  to  him  in  1828  ;  Rama 
Chundra,  formerly  a  Brahman,  who  had  been  baptized  at  Bankote  in 
1829,  Narayan,  formerly  a  Shenavee,  who  had  been  baptized  in  Bom- 
bay in  1829,  and  Manuel  Gomes,  a  Roman  Catholic,  who  had  come 
into  the  true  church  in  1830.  All  these  persons  having  declared  that 
they  were  willing  to  unite  in  church  fellowship,  Mr.  Wilson  proceeded 
to  explain  the  nature  of  church  order  and  fellowship.  He  said  that  on 
these  subjects  the  Holy  Scriptures  were  the  only  infallible  guide  ;  and 
these  Scriptures,  in  several  passages  which  he  read,  taught  there  were 
persons  who  ruled  and  persons  who  were  ruled.  The  persons  who 
ruled  in  the  Church  were  of  two  kinds,  elders  and  deacons." 

After  a  detailed  explanation  of  the  Presbyterian  organisation, 
the  minute  concludes — "  All  the  persons  having  approved  of 
these  statements,  Mr.  Wilson,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  by  prayer 
constituted  them  into  a  church.  They  agreed  to  recognise 
him  as  their  minister,  and  he  gave  them  suitable  instruction. 
On  the  6th  of  February  the  Lord's  Supper  was  administered 
to  the  church.  Mr.  Webb  and  a  converted  Hindoo  partici- 
pated along  with  the  members.  The  son  of  Eama  Chundra 
was  baptized  by  Mr.  Wilson  in  the  presence  of  the  Eev.  John 
Stevenson  and  Kaghoba  Balajee."  Mr.  Webb  was  the 
Civilian  who  became  soon  after  a  member  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

Up  to  1831  the  registration  of  the  baptisms  of  native  con- 
verts had  been  made  in  the  book  of  the  kirk-session  of  the 
chaplains  in  Bombay.  In  all  forty-two  persons  had  thus  been 
admitted  to  the  church  by  the  Scottish  missionaries  in  the 
Konkan.  Mr.  Wilson  at  once  saw  the  necessity  of  separate 
registers  for  converts,  as  congregations  should  be  formed  and 
the  native  church  be  extended.  Writing  to  his  colleagues, 
who  immediately  agreed  with  him,  he  thus  with  his  usual 
foresight  and  faith  contemplated  the  future  :  "  Converts  to  the 
Christian  religion  are  in  the  present  state  of  the  law  wholly 
anomalous,  and,  as  far  as  they  are  concerned,  it  matters  not 
where  their  baptisms  are  registered.  Nay,  there  may  arise  a 


1832.]     DISPUTE  WITH  THE  SCOTTISH  MISSIONAEY  SOCIETY.       83 

great  evil  from  the  insertion  of  their  names  in  the  list  referred 
to  (that  of  the  Scotch  Kirk) ;  when  the  government  begin  to 
legislate  there  is  nothing  more  probable  than  that  they  will 
ask  '  What  has  been  your  custom  ? '  When  we  tell  them  that 
we  have  sent  lists  of  baptisms  at  Bombay,  Poona,  Bankote, 
Hurnee,  Nehar,  etc.,  to  the  kirk-session  at  Bombay,  they  will 
probably  say  'Very  well,  gentlemen,  go  on  in  that  way;' 
and  this  dooms  the  native  churches  for  ages  to  the  greatest 
inconvenience  and  much  expense.  Would  it  not  be  better 
for  us  ab  origine  to  keep  registers  of  our  own  in  connection 
with  the  respective  native  congregations  ? "  Thus  the  organ- 
isation of  a  church  followed,  in  its  simplicity  and  its  power, 
the  model  of  the  first  gathering  of  the  Eleven  in  the  upper 
room  at  Jerusalem,  and  their  successors. 

Not  so  thought  the  small  body,  though  chiefly  Presbyterian 
ministers,  who  formed  the  executive  of  the  Scottish  Missionary 
Society.  From  the  day  that  he  entered  their  seminary  when  a 
student  of  twenty-one,  he  had  stipulated  for  a  degree  of  inde- 
pendence which  their  somewhat  extreme  rules  seemed  to  for- 
bid. He  had  hardly  landed  in  India  when  he  found  that  his 
colleagues  were  engaged  in  a  controversy  with  the  directors, 
the  management  of  which  soon  fell  into  his  hands.  In  June 
1830  we  find  him  writing  to  Dr.  Cormack  of  Stow  in  all  the 
frankness  of  friendship  : — "  Our  directors  in  St.  John  Street 
have  lately  sent  out  to  my  brethren  some  very  alarming  com- 
munications. They  do  not  recognise  our  Presbyterian  princi- 
ples and  our  ordination  vows,  and  they  wish  to  bring  us  under 
a  spiritual  tyranny.  I  am  sure  that  you  and  other  worthies 
of  the  Church  will  keep  a  watch  upon  them."  The  contro- 
versy we  may  now  speedily  dispose  of.  It  was  the  old  one 
between  a  strong  man — strong  in  intelligent  devotion  to  his 
work,  and  a  weak  committee — weak  by  reason  of  distance 
from  the  new  condition  of  things  in  question,  and  of  the 
reduction  of  the  strongest  among  them  to  the  low  level  of 


84  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1832. 

routine  uniformity.  From  the  treatment  that  nearly  broke 
the  heart  of  Carey  and  his  colleagues,  against  which  Andrew 
Fuller  and  John  Foster  in  vain  protested,  down  to  the  present 
hour,  committees  have  been  only  necessary  evils  when  inter- 
fering with  wiser  men  than  themselves.  In  the  infancy  of 
Missions  discretion  and  charity  were  especially  required  on  the 
part  of  distant  directors.  Practically  it  was  found  that  the 
rules  of  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society  so  acted  as  to  clash 
with  the  standing  and  the  conscientious  duties  of  the  mission- 
aries as  ordained  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.1  The 
missionaries,  if  they  were  to  be  merely  the  paid  employes  of 
a  committee  responsible  to  an  undefined  body  of  contributors, 
would  lose  the  protection  and  the  efficiency  which  the  perfect 
representative  system  of  their  Church  gave  them,  in  common 
with  all  its  members  and  office-bearers. 

In  August  1830,  accordingly,  Mr.  Wilson  printed  and  sent 
to  each  of  the  directors,  and  to  his  own  friends,  a  "  Memorial 
addressed  to  the  Directors  of  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society 
on  their  opposition  to  the  practice  of  Presbytery  by  the  Pres- 
byterian Missionaries."  It  is  a  bold  and  trenchant  document, 
showing  a  far-sighted  regard  for  the  good  and  the  growth  of 
the  native  church,  yet  free  from  all  sectarianism  in  spirit. 
The  result  was  a  reply  offering  a  compromise,  under  which  the 
Society  and  its  Bombay  missionaries,  reduced  to  Messrs. 
Wilson,  Nesbit,  and  J.  Mitchell,  worked  together  for  a  time. 

1  The  somewhat  similarly  constituted  London  Missionary  Society,  which 
was  almost  as  presbyterian  in  its  early  directors  and  missionaries  as  the  Scot- 
tish Society,  showed  much  more  wisdom  both  then  and  since.  Mr.  Wilson 
seems  to  have  been  aided  in  the  controversy  by  this  wise  regulation,  which  he 
took  from  the  printed  instructions  of  the  London  Missionary  Society  to  their 
missionaries  among  the  heathen  :— "Should  a  Christian  Church  be  formed 
from  among  those  who  have  been  converted  by  your  instrumentality,  we  have 
merely  to  remind  you  that  the  fundamental  principle  of  our  society  leaves  the 
external  form  and  constitution  of  that  Church  entirely"  to  their  and  your 
choice.  .  To  the  Word  .of  God  alone  your  attention  on  these  subjects  will  be 
directed." — Extracted  from  the  copy  of  the  Rev.  Josiah  Hughes  of  Malacca, 
1830. 


1835.]  MISSION  TRANSFEREE!)  TO  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.    85 

But  as  the  Society's  funds  declined,  and  the  female  schools 
especially  became  imperilled,  in  spite  of  the  growing  local 
support  in  Bombay  itself,  the  directors  began  to  see  that 
their  missionaries  had  been  right.  The  Church  of  Scotland 
had  meanwhile  been  sending  out  its  own  agents,  Duff, 
Mackay,  and  Ewart,  to  Calcutta,  by  means  of  the  India  Mis- 
sion Committee,  of  which  Mr.  Wilson's  old  Professor,  Dr. 
Brunton,  was  the  convener.  Before  the  General  Assembly  of 
1835,  accordingly,  there  was  laid  a  petition  from  its  ministers 
who  were  missionaries,  and  also  from  the  chaplains  in  Bombay 
and  Poona,  which  resulted  in  their  transfer  from  the  Society  to 
the  Church  in  its  corporate  capacity.  Thus  officially  did  Mr. 
Wilson  begin  with  Dr.  Brunton  a  correspondence  which  con- 
tinued till  1843.  The  letter  reflects  the  progress  made  by  the 
Mission  in  the  first  six  years  of  its  existence  : — 

"Bombay,  3d  October  1835. 

"  MY  DEAE  SIR — Three  weeks  ago  I  had  the  pleasure  of  receiv- 
ing your  letter  dated  the  29th  April  last,  and  I  am  truly  grateful  to  you 
for  the  kindness  of  the  feelings  with  which  you  received  our  petition 
for  the  transference  of  our  mission  to  the  General  Assembly,  and  the 
zeal  and  promptitude  with  which  you  have  prosecuted  its  objects. 
Should  our  now  united  wishes  be  accomplished,  as  I  fervently  trust 
they  will,  I  hope  that  the  relation  in  which  we  shall  stand  to  one 
another  will  be  one  of  mutual  satisfaction  and  comfort :  and  that  our 
combined  exertions  at  home  and  abroad  will,  by  the  divine  blessing, 
minister  greatly  to  the  advancement  of  that  kingdom  which  is  para- 
mount in  the  council  of  heaven,  and  which  is  the  highest  exhibition  of 
God's  glory  and  grace  to  created  intelligence.  Than  the  Church  of 
Scotland  there  is  no  body  to  which,  from  an  admiration  of  its  doctrines 
and  constitution,  we  can  possibly  be  more  attached  ;  in  whose  wisdom 
and  deliberation  we  can  more  implicitly  trust  ;  whose  zeal,  when  direc- 
ted to  the  heathen  world,  we  can  view  as  promising  to  be  more  efficient ; 
and  whose  polity  we  can  conceive  to  be  a  greater  blessing  to  a  Church 
newly  forming  in  a  country  hitherto  covered  with  moral  darkness. 
Than  Bombay  and  the  north-west  of  India,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is 
no  place  in  the  world  where  the  Church,  of  Scotland  may  more  advan- 
tageously labour,  and  where  more  important  results  may,  in  God's  own 


86  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

time,  be  confidently  anticipated.  We  have  a  capital  which  contains  a 
population  of  Hindus,  Mussulmans,  Parsees,  and  Jews,  in  many  respects 
the  most  inviting,  and  which,  from  its  geographical  situation  and 
mercantile  importance,  is  frequented  by  people  of  all  the  Indian  and 
other  Asiatic  nations,  and  of  several  tribes  of  Africa,  and  from  which 
as  from  a  centre  the  Gospel  may  radiate  in  all  directions.  We  have 
here  the  head-quarters  of  Hinduism,  for  the  Maharashtra  Brahmans 
take  the  precedence  at  Benares  and  through  the  whole  of  India  for 
their  learning  and  influence.  We  have  a  people  whose  energy,  before 
it  was  subdued  by  the  superior  skill  and  prowess  of  our  countrymen, 
was  felt  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  and  which, 
when  it  receives  a  holy  direction,  may  be  expected  to  be  instrumental 
in  accomplishing  great  good.  We  have  also  the  advantage  of  having 
commenced  our  labours,  and  done  not  a  little  in  the  acquisition  of  lan- 
guages, the  study  of  the  different  systems  of  superstition,  the  prepara- 
tion of  books,  the  establishment  of  schools,  and  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  to  facilitate  our  future  labours.  We  have  many  opportunities 
for '  correspondence  with  Calcutta,  where  the  General  Assembly  has 
already  a  most  flourishing  and  promising  mission,  and  we  could  co- 
operate with  our  brethren  there  to  no  inconsiderable  extent. 

"  But  I  must  now  reply  to  your  query.  It  is  difficult  to  form  an 
estimate  of  the  probable  amount  of  the  permanent  contributions  to  our 
mission  in  India.  Last  year  the  receipts  of  the  Bombay  Auxiliary 
Society  amounted  to  Ks.  9400  ;  of  the  English  School  for  natives  under 
my  superintendence,  to  Rs.  1000;  and  of  one  of  the  female  schools 
formed  by  my  dearest  wife,  who  has  lately  entered  into  the  joy  of  her 
Lord,  to  Rs.  700.  There  is  not  the  prospect  of  a  falling  off  in  the 
Auxiliary  this  year.  An  increase  of  contributions  to  the  English 
school  I  so  confidently  expect,  that,  in  addition  to  its  present  establish- 
ment, I  have  engaged  a  European  as  a  teacher  for  it  on  a  salary  of 
Rs.  150  per  mensem.  The  ladies  of  Bombay  have  resolved  to  continue 
to  support  the  school  for  destitute  native  girls,  and  to  associate  with 
it  among  the  natives  the  remembrance  of  her  who  was  its  devoted 
founder.  Ten  thousand  rupees  may  be  stated  as  the  annual  sum  which, 
in  these  various  forms,  will  probably  be  given  by  our  friends  in  this 
quarter.  Independently  of  pecuniary  contributions  we  not  unfrequently 
receive  from  them  essential  aid  in  the  prosecution  of  our  duties.  I 
may  mention  as  an  instance  of  this,  that  I  experienced  the  greatest  kind- 
ness from  all  the  civil  and  military  authorities,  and  from  the  native 
princes,  during  a  journey  which  I  lately  accomplished  through  Goojarat, 
Kathiawar,  and  Kutch.  I  believe  that,  even  with  an  extension  of  the 


1835.]  HIS  ENGLISH  COLLEGE.  87 

mission,  we  should  not  need  more  than  two-thirds  of  our  supplies  from 
Scotland,  and  that  at  present  an  annual  contribution  of  £1000,  or  £1200 
from  that  quarter,  would  enable  us  to  proceed  vigorously." 

Thus  pleasantly  was  the  last  obstacle  to  Mr.  Wilson's 
success  removed,  nor  thereafter,  either  before  or  after  the 
Disruption  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  1843,  were  his 
labours  impeded  by  home  interference.  A  new  vigour  was 
given  to  all  the  operations  of  the  mission,  and  not  least  to 
the  English  college,  to  which,  after  their  successful  experience 
in  Calcutta,  the  General  Assembly's  Committee  directed 
special  attention.  Mr.  Wilson  removed  it  into  the  Fort,  that 
is,  into  Bombay  proper  in  those  days,  as  "  the  situation  is  the 
most  convenient  for  the  most  respectable  natives,  and  in 
which  there  is  no  similar  institution."  He  mentions  the  rent 
of  the  premises,  Es.  120  a  month,  as  "  very  reasonable,  con- 
sidering the  demand  for  houses  in  that  part  of  the  town." 
The  fact  is  of  economic  interest  in  the  light  of  the  speculative 
mania  of  1863-66,  and  of  the  present  value  of  property  there. 

"  We  have  commenced  operations  with  every  encouragement,  and 
have  now  an  attendance  of  215  boys,  who  are  taught  on  the  intellectual 
system,  and  who  are  making  gratifying  progress  both  in  literary  and 
religious  knowledge,  which  the  parents  were  expressly  informed  by  me, . 
through  the  native  papers,  they  would  receive,  and  to  the  communica- 
tion of  which  they  have  no  objection.  The  pupils  form  a  group  as 
interesting  as  can  be  imagined  as  far  as  the  variety  of  tribes  is  con- 
cerned. They  have  been  drawn  not  only  from  the  different  classes  of 
the  Hindus,  but  from  among  the  Parsees,  Jains,  Mussulmans,  Jews,  and 
native  Christians  ;  and  their  association  together,  independently  of  the 
instructions  which  they  receive,  cannot  but  have  a  powerful  influence 
in  removing  those  prejudices  of  caste  which  so  mnch  impede  missionary 
operations  in  this  country. 

"  The  school  is  already  indebted  to  me  for  as  large  a  sum  as  I  can 
conveniently  advance,  and  I  hope  that  the  Assembly's  Committee  will 
be  disposed,  as  soon  as  convenient,  to  appropriate  for  it  the  sum  of 
£250  per  annum,  employing  £50  for  prize  books,  etc.,  to  be  purchased 
in  Edinburgh,  and  giving  me  permission  to  draw  upon  them  for  the 
sum  of  £50  quarterly.  I  shall  undertake  to  raise  all  other  necessary 


88  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

funds  in  India  for  the  present,  and  that  without  making  any  encroach- 
ment on  the  ordinary  income  of  the  Auxiliary  Society,  which  is  already 
all  most  profitably  employed.  I  shall  feel  truly  grateful  to  you  if  you 
will  procure,  as  you  so  kindly  propose,  the  consent  of  the  Committee 
to  my  being  furnished  with  one  of  the  Assembly's  trained  teachers  from 
Calcutta.  I  am  anxious  to  have  such  a  person,  not  so  much  merely  to 
support  the  intellectual  system,  which  has  been  already  so  successfully 
introduced  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Taylor  of  Belgaum,  after  seeing  it  in 
operation,  has  determined  to  send  to  me  the  teacher  of  his  school  as  an 
apprentice,  but  to  give  needed  help  in  conducting  its  business,  and  to 
give  me  a  feeling  of  security,  that  even  though  Mr.  Payne  should  be 
induced  to  leave  it  for  a  more  lucrative  situation,  or  for  any  other 
cause,  the  whole  burden  of  it  should  not  be  thrown  upon  me  and  the 
native  assistant.  Some  of  the  books  which  we  use  in  the  school  are  the 
same  as  those  used  in  the  Assembly's  Institution  in  Calcutta.  Of  three  of 
them  we  had  some  time  ago  made  translations  both  into  Marathee  and 
Goojaratee,  which  are  now  found  to  be  very  useful. 

"  Every  economy  will  be  studied  in  reference  to  the  school  in 
Bombay.  Unless,  however,  every  thing  connected  with  it  be  arranged 
on  a  respectable  scale,  it  will  not,  while  the  Native  Education  Society 
has  such  abundant  resources  from  the  government,  be  productive  of 
much  good.  It  is  a  subject  of  gratitude  that  the  mission  enjoys  so 
much  of  the  confidence  of  the  natives  as  it  actually  does,  and  that  even 
the  very  individuals  who  have  so  zealously  but  unsuccessfully  come 
forward  to  the  defence  of  the  different  systems  of  superstition,  are  on 
the  most  friendly  terms  with  myself,  and  frequent  in  public  and  private 
intercourse  with  me.  I  lately  finished  a  course  of  weekly  lectures  on 
the  evidences  and  doctrines  of  natural  and  revealed  religion,  which  I 
commenced  three  years  ago.  I  have  begun  another  course  on  the 
propagation  of  the  gospel  from  the  resurrection  of  Christ  to  the  present 
day.  On  this  course  the  Durpun,  edited  by  a  young  Brahman,  remarked 
— '  a  great  many  natives  were  present  at  the  first  lecture.  The  course 
Mr.  Wilson  has  now  commenced  cannot  but  be  interesting  to  them,  as 
not  only  bringing  before  them  the  data  which  must  lead  to  the  solution 
of  the  most  important  problem  which  can  engage  their  attention,  but 
as  conveying  to  them  most  valuable  information  on  the  general  history 
of  the  world,  and  the  greatest  moral  revolutions  which  have  taken 
place  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  His  avowed  object  is  to  convert;  but 
he  wishes  in  the  first  instance  to  inform  and  to  afford  the  means  of 
judging.' 

"  The  state  of  my  health  is  now  such  that  I  have  felt  warranted  to 


1835.]  HIS  MISSIONARY  POLICY.  89 

resume,  though  from  my  multifarious  duties  I  cannot  daily  pursue  it, 
my  preaching  in  the  native  languages  at  places  of  public  concourse. 
My  audiences  are  extremely  encouraging.  The  attendance  at  the 
stated  services  of  the  mission  is  greater  than  I  have  ever  formerly 
witnessed  it.  I  have  seven  candidates  for  baptism.  The  schools  both 
for  boys  and  girls,  in  which  the  native  languages  are  taught,  are  in 
much  the  same  state  in  which  they  were  when  I  transmitted  to  you 
our  annual  report.  I  should  regret  exceedingly  to  see  them  diminished, 
as  they  are  in  every  respect  suitable  to  the  circumstances  of  the  lower 
orders,  the  '  poor  to  whom  the  gospel  is  preached,'  and  from  whom  the 
first  body  of  converts  may  be  probably  raised  in  India,  as  well  as  in 
other  countries.  The  English  school  will,  I  trust,  soon  furnish  a 
superior  class  of  teachers  for  them.  I  have  placed  in  it  one  or  two  of 
their  most  promising  pupils.  Should  the  state  of  your  funds  render  it 
necessary  the  Portuguese  school  may  be  suspended  for  the  present 
without  much  injury  to  the  usefulness  of  the  mission. 

"  Though  I  fear  that  native  missionaries,  till  they  are  raised  from 
among  the  children  of  converts  educated  from  their  earliest  days  in 
Christianity  and  in  a  Christian  atmosphere,  will  not,  generally  speaking, 
prove  such  efficient  labourers  as  Europeans,  and  though  I  believe  that 
we  must  first  show  them  the  example  of  an  apostolic  ministration,  I 
enter  with  my  whole  soul  into  your  views  as  to  the  adoption  and  devis- 
ing of  every  practical  measure  for  their  training.  It  will  be  necessary 
that  we,  in  conjunction  with  the  chaplains,  etc.,  should,  as  soon  as 
possible,  receive  from  the  Assembly  all  the  presbyterial  powers  vested 
in  the  section  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  at  Calcutta.  The  sooner  that 
we  are  in  a  state  of  complete  organisation  the  better. 

"  I  have  received  a  very  interesting  letter  from  Mr.  Mackay.  I  enter 
most  cordially  into  the  view  which  he  states,  that  the  experience  of  the 
two  missions  will  be  in  many  respects  mutually  advantageous.  Mr. 
Duff's  success  in  the  organisation  of  presbyterial  associations  in  Scotland 
is  truly  encouraging  to  us  amidst  all  our  trials  and  travail  in  India. 
The  General  Assembly  in  1647  thus  wrote — 'Surely  'tis  to  be  wished, 
that  for  defending  the  orthodox  faith,  both  against  popery  and  other 
heresies,  as  also  for  propagating  it  to  those  who  are  without,  especially  the 
Jews,  a  more  tried  and  more  firm  consociation  may  be  entered  into. 
For  the  unanimity  of  all  the  churches  as  in  evil  'tis  of  all  things  most 
hurtful,  so,  on  the  contrary  side,  in  good  it  is  most  pleasant,  most 
profitable,  and  most  effectual.'  I  trust  that  this  wish,  in  the  compre- 
hensive sense  in  which  it  is  expressed,  will  ere  long  be  realised.  The 
internal  spiritual  riches  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  will  not  be 


90  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

diminished,  but  increased  by  the  most  abundant  external  communica- 
tion. 

"  My  present  salary,  exclusive  of  house  rent  and  travelling  expenses, 
which  are  included  in  the  general  expense  of  the  mission,  but  inclusive 
of  an  allowance  for  my  two  children,  is  .£230  per  annum.  The 
experience  of  nearly  seven  years'  residence  in  Bombay,  the  expense  of 
which  is  more  than  one-third  greater  than  that  of  out-stations,  war- 
rants me  to  say  what  both  my  missionary  brethren  and  members  of  the 
corresponding  committee  of  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society,  long  ago  urged 
me  to  state  to  my  supporters,  is  inadequate  to  the  comfort  and  usefulness 
in  the  Lord's  work  which  it  is  desirable  I  should  enjoy,  and  which,  from 
private  sources,  I  have  hitherto  enjoyed.  I  should  like  it  raised  to 
£250.  I  simply  mention  this  circumstance  because  you  have  kindly 
asked  me  to  be  explicit  as  to  the  proposed  expenditure." 

The  total  cost  of  the  mission  in  1836  was  £1820,  of  which 
one-third  was  subscribed  by  the  English  residents.  From 
first  to  last  Mr.  Wilson's  income  from  the  mission  was  insuf- 
ficient for  ordinary  requisites,  apart  from  those  extensive  tours 
and  those  social  duties  which  he  began  to  take  upon  himself, 
and  which  gradually  became  the  secret  of  his  power  with 
native,  even  more  than  with  English  society.  But  nothing 
save  an  official  demand  from  the  Home  Committee  ever  called 
forth  a  reference  to  his  pecuniary  affairs.  On  the  contrary, 
he  joyfully  devoted  such  private  resources  as  came  to  him 
in  subsequent  years,  and  such  funds  as  his  friends  and 
admirers  entrusted  to  him  personally,  to  the  one  work  of  his 
life.  Mr.  J.  Jordan  Wilson,  a  wealthy  friend  of  his  youth, 
who  was  early  attracted  to  him  by  his  student-like  zeal  and 
by  the  belief  that  there  was  some  slight  bond  of  kinship 
between  them,  and  above  all  by  close  spiritual  ties,  left  him 
a  legacy  of  a  thousand  pounds,  half  of  which  was  for  any 
missionary  object  he  chose,  and  half  for  his  private  use.  The 
letters  to  his  Edinburgh  agents,  sent  in  reply  to  the  news  of 
the  legacy,  directed  the  expenditure  of  the  whole  amount  in 
various  ways  for  the  Bombay  Mission.  The  following  letter 
to  that  gentleman  shows  how  soon  and  thickly  the  cares  of 


1836.]  HIS  VARIED  LABOURS.  91 

the  mission  pressed  upon  his  resources,  and  how  manifold 
were  his  labours  : — 

"Bombay,  13th  November  1830. 

"  MY  DEAREST  FRIEND — I  have  little  leisure,  and  some  of  that  is 
spent  in  connection  with  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator,  which  I 
regularly  send  to  you,  and  the  numbers  of  which  must  be  viewed  by 
you  as  letters,  as  they  generally  contain  something  which  has  proceeded 
from  our  own  house.  The  Spectator  is  very  extensively  read  in  India  ; 
and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  accomplishing  much  good  by 
diffusing  information  on  the  most  important  subjects.  I  trust  that 
God  will  honour  it  in  some  degree  to  expose  that  monstrous  system  of 
iniquity,  the  Hindoo  religion,  and  to  aid  the  servants  of  the  Saviour  in 
proclaiming  the  gospel.  You  will  see  in  the  number  for  November, 
which  I  hope  will  soon  reach  you,  a  short  paper  by  myself  on  tha 
'  Sanscrit  and  Marathee  renderings  of  Theological  Terms.'  I  intend 
to  follow  up  this  most  important  subject,  and  to  make  such  free 
remarks  on  the  translations  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  Indian  languages 
as  I  may  conceive  calculated  to  further  their  improvement.  The  paper 
which  follows  the  article  to  which  I  refer,  and  entitled  '  Selected 
Sanscrit  Shloks,'  is  by  a  Mr.  Law,  a  young  gentleman  of  the  Civil 
Service.  He  is  a  most  extraordinary  linguist.  He  was  brought  under 
serious  impressions  through  our  instrumentality  during  the  voyage  to 
India.  He  lately  stayed  a  month  with  us,  and  we  were  much  pleased 
with  his  Christian  character.  Our  usefulness  among  Europeans, 
through  the  grace  of  our  heavenly  Father,  continues  to  extend,  particu- 
larly among  the  higher  classes.  The  old  serpent,  by  stirring  up  the 
opposition  of  bigots,  has  attempted  to  defeat  and  prevent  our  occa- 
sional labours  among  the  sailors  and  soldiers  ;  but  he  has  failed.  The 
true  friends  of  the  cause  have  rallied  more  closely  around  us,  while  our 
poor  countrymen  have  more  highly  valued  the  word  of  life  which  they 
knew  had  been  attempted  to  be  taken  from  them. 

"  In  your  letter  you  express  your  wish  that  I  had  been  connected 
with  the  General  Assembly's  Institution  at  Calcutta.  I  think  that  it 
is  calculated  to  be  highly  useful,  and  I  wish  it  every  success.  I  would 
remark,  however,  that  colleges  though  they  are  admirable  instruments 
in  the  instruction  of  Christians,  are  but  clumsy  instruments  in  the 
making  or  conversion  of  Christians.  The  preaching  of  the  gospel  is  the 
grand  means  of  propagating  the  gospel,  and  for  every  professor  at  pre- 
sent there  should  be  at  least  twenty  preachers.  The  Assembly's  opera- 
tions will  have  a  glorious  effect  on  the  Church  at  home.  Mr.  Duff, 


92  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

whom  they  have  sent  out,  is  a  pious  young  man,  and  he  will,  I  am 
happy  to  say,  preach  as  well  as  profess.  He,  like  myself,  has  had 
toughly  to  fight,  through  the  newspapers,  for  religious  liberty.  See 
the  number  of  the  Spectator  for  November,  under  the  article  headed 
'  Persecution  of  Hindoo  Youth.'  I  have  at  present  two  Hindoos  under 
my  care,  converts  of  our  mission,  whom  I  instruct  with  a  view  to  their 
being  admitted  to  the  office  of  the  ministry.  I  have  now  seven  in- 
quirers around  me,  of  most  of  whom  I  entertain  a  favourable  opinion. 
Five  of  them  are  Hindoos,  three  men  and  two  women ;  one  is  an  African, 
and  one  a  Jew.  I  have  great  difficulty  in  instructing  this  last  individual, 
as  he  can  scarcely  speak  any  other  language  than  Arabic,  of  which  I 
have  a  very  slight  knowledge.  He  is,  however,  learning  Hindostanee 
and  English. 

"  Permit  me  to  make  an  appeal  to  your  Christian  sympathy.  I 
know  that  to  you  I  need  to  make  no  apology  on  this  subject.  There 
are  many  many  poor  people  in  Bombay  in  very  wretched  circum- 
stances. About  two  hundred  come  to  me  every  Monday  morning  for 
a  little  rice,  and  at  that  time  I  endeavour  to  administer  to  them  the 
word  of  life.  On  Saturdays  I  preach  to  about  six  hundred  of  the  same 
description  of  persons  at  the  house  of  Captain  Molesworth.  For  the 
relief  of  this  class  of  persons  a  society,  at  my  suggestion,  has  been 
lately  formed,  and  I  believe  that  their  wants  will  be  regularly  and 
systematically  relieved.  There  are  other  classes,  however,  for  whom  I 
have  been  able  to  do  nothing,  and  their  circumstances  possess  peculiar 
interest.  They  are  persons  who  lose  employment  by  inquiring  into 
Christianity,  or  by  embracing  it ;  they  are  persecuted  Christians 
(Armenians  and  Chaldeans),  and  Jews  from  Bussora,  Bagdad,  Tabreez, 
and  other  places,  who  come  with  the  most  heartrending  accounts  of 
Muhammadan  tyranny  ;  and  they  are  poor  Indian  Roman  Catholics. 
My  heart  is  often  pained  by  observing  their  wants  ;  and  I  am  not 
ashamed  to  say  that  we  have  relieved  at  times  beyond  our  ability. 
You  know  that  none  of  the  Missionary  Society  funds  can  or  ought  to 
be  applied  to  them.  If  you  and  some  of  the  other  friends  of  the 
Redeemer  would  in  a  quiet  way  raise  a  small  sum  for  them,  you  would 
confer  a  blessing  on  the  cause  of  humanity  and  Christianity.  By 
informing  me  of  the  sum  raised,  I  could  act  on  the  faith  of  getting  it, 
and  tell  you  how  to  appropriate  it.  I  would  furnish  you  with  an 
account  of  the  way  in  which  it  may  be  expended. 

"My  darling  wife  has  six  female  schools,  and  she  is  useful  in 
instructing  female  inquirers." 


1836.]  RELATIONS  WITH  DR.  DUFF.  93 

In  this  letter  we  see  the  germ  of  every  side  of  the  young 
missionary's  work  in  and  for  Bombay,  save  only  the  English 
college.  Experiences  were  soon  to  teach  him  that,  for  preaching 
and  immediate  fruit  no  less  than  in  that  wider  work  of  prepara- 
tion, the  fruit  of  which  comes  plenteously  after  many  days 
and  has  already  begun  so  to  come,  the  daily  instruction  of  the 
most  intellectual  and  influential  youth  by  one  to  whom  they 
become  attached,  is  second  to  no  other  agency — is,  indeed, 
for  that  class  superior  to  all  others.  But  even  up  to  1836  he 
had  not  learned,  as  he  afterwards  did,  to  perfect  his  own 
system  of  Christian  aggression  on  the  corrupting  civilisations 
of  the  East,  by  the  enthusiastic  encouragement  of  the  higher 
education  through  English.  The  following  letter  to  Mr.  J. 
Jordan  Wilson,  closes  with  a  statement  of  spiritual  truth, 
happily  familiar  enough  now,  but  rare  in  Scotland  forty 
years  ago.  It  is  the  last  of  a  long  correspondence  covering 
fifteen  years,  in  which  the  younger  man  led  the  older  to  a 
cheerful  peace  and  a  joyous  self-sacrifice  for  the  cause  of  Christ. 
It  is  the  first  where  we  meet  with  allusions  to  a  friendship 
with  Dr.  Duff,  and  an  admiration  for  him  none  the  less  true 
and  hearty  because  it  was  discriminating,  which  continued 
on  both  sides  all  through  their  Indian  lives. 

"  Bombay,  7th  July,  1836. 

"  You  mention  Mr.  Duff's  elevation  to  a  Doctorsliip.  He  is  well 
worthy  of  his  honours,  although  some  of  his  views  on  the  economics  of 
Christian  missions  are,  in  my  opinion,  erroneous.  I  have  just  remarked 
in  a  letter  to  a  friend  to-day  as  follows : — '  Dr.  Duff's  warm  advocacy  of 
the  Calcutta  Institution  has  been  by  far  too  exclusive.  I  rejoice  in  the 
prosperity  of  the  Seminary,  and  wish  it  every  support  ;  but  he  ought 
not  to  have  advocated  its  cause  by  disparaging  the  direct  preaching  of  the 
gospel  to  the  natives  in  their  own  languages  by  Europeans,  and  over- 
looked 'female  education,  and  the  general  education  of  the  natives 
through  the  medium  of  their  own  tongues,  which  form  the  readiest  key  to 
their  hearts.  The  higher  Institutions  are  well  calculated  to  attract  the 
higher  classes  of  society,  and  to  educate  teachers  and  preachers.  We 
must  have  a  body  of  Christians,  however,  from  which  to  select  these 


94  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

agents.  For  this  body  of  Christians  we  must  not  mainly  depend  on 
our  Academies.  '  To  the  poor  the  gospel  is  preached.'  '  Of  the  little 
flock,  and  present  inquirers  at  this  place,'  I  also  observe  to  Dr.  Brunton, 
1  some  were  first  impressed  by  hearing  the  gospel  in  the  crowded  bazaar, 
some  by  hearing  it  at  the  margin  of  the  sea  :  some  in  the  church  ; 
some  in  the  school-room  ;  some  in  the  place  in  which  the  Lord  of 
Glory  was  born  when  he  came  on  his  mission  to  this  world  ;  some  in 
the  social  circle  ;  some  in  the  private  chamber  ;  and  some  by  the 
perusal  of  Christian  publications.  I  have  thus  been  encouraged  to 
remember  the  words  of  inspiration  : — '  Blessed  are  ye  that  sow  beside 
all  waters.'  '  In  the  morning  sow  thy  seed,  and  in  the  evening  with- 
hold not  thine  hand  :  for  thou  knowest  not  whether  shall  prosper, 
either  this  or  that,  or  whether  they  both  shall  be  alike  good.'  I  could 
not  refrain  from  giving  you,  who  are  so  much  interested  in  my  opera- 
tions, this  brief  expression  of  my  views.  Were  I  to  visit  the  Modern 
Athens,  and  seek  to  propagate  these  opinions,  I  should,  instead  of  being 
dubbed  a  '  Doctor  in  Divinity,'  probably  be  dubbed  a  '  Babbler,'  like 
Paul  in  the  Ancient  Athens.  I  have  the  fullest  confidence  that  the 
Lord  will  soon  vindicate  his  own  cause  :  and  I  am  perfectly  willing,  if 
I  have  the  means  of  carrying  on  my  labours,  to  be  personally  over- 
looked and  despised.  I  bless  God  for  what  I  have  already  seen  as  to 
the  diminishment  of  prejudices  against  'highway  missionaries.'  Six 
years  ago  my  countrymen  laughed  at  me  when  they  saw  me  '  harangu- 
ing mobs.'  These  same  gentlemen  have  conferred  on  me  their  highest 
literary  honour,  and  notwithstanding  my  street  preaching  propensities, 
have  put  me  into  the  chair  formerly  occupied  by  these  great  men  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  Sir  John  Malcolm,  etc.,  and  suffered  me  to 
'  harangue '  them  as  their  president !  I  had  serious  thoughts  of  saying 
nolo  episcopari  ;  but  when  I  thought  that  I  might  contribute  to  shield 
the  whole  class  of  '  Banters '  from  contempt,  and  use  my  influence  for 
the  Lord's  cause,  I  refrained. 

"  Would  that  I  could,  in  reply  to  your  inquiry,  speak  a  word  in 
season  to  you,  as  you  have  done  to  me  !  The  foundation  of  faith 
is  the  Gospel  offer  of  salvation  to  the  chief  of  sinners  who  will 
accept  it.  We  must  be  content  to  be  saved  gratuitously.  We  can 
neither  purchase  our  justification  before  we  Deceive  it,  nor  ade- 
quately acknowledge  it  when  we  have  received  it.  The  Saviour  is 
infinitely  worthy  of  our  reliance,  and  the  moment  we  rely  upon  him 
we  are  safe,  and  may  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory. 
We  must  seek  for  comfort  by  looking  to  him  and  his  finished  work. 
The  eye,  as  Dr.  Chalmers  I  believe  expresses  it,  must  look  to  the  Sun 


1836.]        SPIKITUAL  COUNSELS  AND  MODERN  PREACHING.  95 

of  Righteousness  for  his  light-giving  and  life-giving  beams,  and  not 
turn  in  to  gaze  upon  its  internal  structure.  The  work  of  Christ  within 
us  is  the  evidence  of  our  faith  ;  but  the  work  of  Christ  without  us  is 
the  object  of  our  faith,  and  the  offers  of  Christ  the  warrant  of  our  faith. 
When  Satan  says  to  us,  '  you  have  not  believed,  else  whence  all  your 
fears,  and  all  your  failings  and  offences,'  we  should  reply,  if  we  cannot 
give  him  the  direct  contradiction,  '  I  now  believe  what  the  Saviour 
says  to  me,  and  I  will  now  give  my  fears  to  the  winds  in  spite  of  all 
your  efforts.'  Our  struggle  with  and  distress  on  account  of  indwelling 
sin,  which  is  common  to  us  and  all  the  Lord's  people,  ought  to  enhance 
the  Saviour  in  our  estimation,  and  not  to  detract  from  our  grounds 
of  confidence  in  him,  which  are  the  unchanging  graciousness  of  his 
character  and  the  unfailing  efficacy  of  his  mediation.  My  little 
children  never  imagined  that  I  ceased  to  be  their  father  when  I  chode 
them,  or  removed  them  from  my  presence,  or  punished  them,  till  I  saw 
in  them  a  proper  contrition.  Why,  then,  0  why,  should  we  dishonour 
God  by  imagining  that  he  ceases  to  be  our  Father  ?  There  is  too  little 
of  the  freeness  of  the  Gospel  set  forth  in  modern  preaching." 

Throughout  this  period  Mr.  Wilson  seems  to  have  kept  up 
a  regular  and  full  correspondence  with  the  friends  of  his 
youth,  to  an  extent  remarkable  at  a  time  when  communication 
with  home  was  so  slow  and  so  costly.  Outside  of  his  own 
family  and  his  wife's,  and  apart  from  the  official  letters,  first 
of  Dr.  Brown  and  then  of  Dr.  Brunton,  Mr.  Archibald  Bonar, 
W.S.,  was  his  most  constant  correspondent.  Mr.  Bonar's 
letters  trace  the  course  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  as  the 
Evangelical  party  obtained  a  majority  in  its  councils,  and  as 
it  prepared  itself  for  what  is  popularly  known  as  the  Ten 
Years'  Conflict,  that  ended  in  the  Disruption  of  1843.  In  a 
letter  of  19th  June  1834,  after  recording  the  death  from 
consumption  at  Leghorn  of  Mr.  Martin,  who  had  been  called 
to  St.  George's,  Edinburgh,  as  a  preacher  worthy  to  succeed 
Dr.  Andrew  Thomson,  Mr.  Bonar  thus  proceeds  : — 

"  The  Assembly  met  on  the  22d  ult.,  and  was  constituted  with  un 
usual  pomp.  The  Commissioner  held  his  levee  in  the  ancient  Palace 
of  Holyrood,  and  there  was  a  great  display  of  troops  on  the  first  day. 
A  committee  was  appointed  to  converse  with  his  Grace  about  the  usual 


96  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

profanation  of  the  Sabbath,  and  it  was  found  that  the  King  and  he  had 
agreed  that  all  the  Sunday's  parade,  and  even  the  dinner,  should  be 
discontinued.  Wednesday  being  the  King's  birthday,  the  Commissioner 
invited  all  the  ministers  to  dine  with  him  at  the  Palace,  and  in  the 
evening  they  were  introduced  in  state  to  Lady  Belhaven.  Patrick 
Macfarlane  of  Greenock  was  Moderator,  and  managed  very  well.  It  was 
calculated  by  some  of  the  knowing  ones  that  the  Moderates  had  a 
majority  of  fifteen  or  twenty.  But  whether  it  was  so  you  shall  pre- 
sently see.  The  first  great  division  took  place  on  Lord  Moncreiff's 
motion,  that  if  in  any  parish  the  majority  of  heads  of  families,  being 
communicants,  declared  that  they  did  not  wish  the  presentee — that  he 
was  not  agreeable  to  them — that  man  could  not  and  should  not  be 
settled  in  that  parish.  After  a  stormy  discussion  this  motion  was  car- 
ried by  a  majority  of  forty-seven  !  And  though  it  was  ultimately  agreed 
to  take  the  opinion  of  Presbyteries  on  the  point,  yet  it  was  passed  as  an 
interim  Act,  so  that  it  is  at  this  moment  a  law  of  the  Church  against 
intrusions.  The  next  great  question  was  whether  chapels-of-ease  should 
be  made  parish  churches,  and  their  ministers  be  entitled  to  all  the 
privileges  of  parish  ministers  quoad  sacra.  But  to  this  the  Moderates 
could  not  agree.  They  had  conscientious  (!)  scruples  about  the  power 
of  the  Church  to  do  this  without  taking  the  opinion  of  the  Presbyteries. 
To  be  sure,  last  year  the  Assembly  by  an  Act  admitted  the  ministers 
of  the  Parliamentary  churches  to  like  privileges  ;  but  then  the  majority 
of  these  were  thought  to  be  Moderates,  whereas  almost  the  whole  of  the 
chapel  ministers  will  be  '  wild  men  ; '  and  some  men,  not  otherwise  so, 
get  very  scrupulous  when  anything  goes  against  their  grain.  Well,  of 
course,  they  opposed  this  as  they  do  every  reformation  ;  but  their  oppo- 
sition was  of  no  avail,  for  the  motion  was  carried  by  forty-nine  in  favour 
of  admitting  them.  In  consequence  of  this  decision  the  ministers  of 
the  chapels  within  the  bounds  of  Glasgow  Presbytery  have  already 
taken  their  seats,  and  I  suppose  ours  will  do  so  on  Wednesday  next. 
You  know  the  notorious  character  of  the  Aberdeen  Presbytery.  Not 
one  of  the  ministers  from  it  voted  right  this  year,  and  yet  by  this  new 
Act  the  orthodox  party  have  there  the  majority  ! 

"  Did  I  tell  you  that  William  Cunningham  of  Greenock  had  got 
the  College  charge  ?  He  is  doing  admirably  ;  of  great  use  in  the 
Presbytery.  John  Sym,  minister  of  Sprouston,  a  cousin  of  Professor 
Wilson,  has  been  appointed  successor  to  Dr.  Inglis.  He  is  only  twenty- 
five  years,  but  a  very  fine  young  man.  Mr.  Candlish,  sometime  assistant 
in  St.  George's,  has  got  that  church." 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

1830-1836. 

PUBLIC  DISCUSSIONS  WITH  LEARNED  HINDOOS  AND 
MUHAMMADANS. 

How  Mr.  Wilson  became  an  Orientalist — "  Turningthe  World  Upside-down  " 
— Ziegenbalg's  "Conferences" — First  Discussion  with  Brahmans — Christian 
Brahman  against  Hindoo  Pundits — "  God's  Sepoys  " — The  Ten  Incarnations — 
The  Pundits  Retire— Morality  versus  Religion — The  Second  Discussion — The 
New  Champion  with  Garlands  of  Flowers — Mr.  Wilson's  "  First  Exposure  of 
Hindooism  " — The  Third  Discussion — Mr.  Wilson's  "  Second  Exposure  of 
Hindooism  " — Parseeism  and  Muhammadanism  enter  the  Arena — H.  Xavier's 
and  H.  Martyn's  Controversial  Tracts — Dr.  Pfander's  later  Treatises — Mr. 
Wilson's  Reply  to  Hadjee  Muhammad  Hashim — Polygamy  and  Divorce  accord- 
ing to  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Koran — The  Difference — The  Sexualism  of 
the  Koran  and  Slavery — The  sons  of  Israel  in  Western  India — The  Black  and 
White  Jews — Joseph  Wolff,  the  Christian  Dervish  and  Protestant  Xavier — 
Visit  of  Mr.  Anthony  Groves,  Dervish  of  a  different  stamp — Mr.  Francis  W. 
Newman  as  a  Missionary — Mr.  Robert  C.  Money — Sir  John  Malcolm — Lord 
William  Bentinck— The  Earl  of  Clare— Sir  Robert  Grant— Mr.  Wilson  on  the 
British  Sovereignty  in  India  in  1835 — Bombay  Union  of  Missionaries — Pro- 
gress in  Kaffraria — Mr.  Wilson  on  Carey  and  Morrison. 


H 


Believe — and  our  whole  argument  breaks  up. 

Enthusiasm's  the  best  thing  I  repeat ; 

Only,  we  can't  command  it  ;  fire  and  life 

Are  all,  dead  matter's  nothing,  we  agree  : 

And  be  it  a  mad  dream  or  God's  very  breath, 

The  fact's  the  same, — beliefs  fire  once  in  us, 

Makes  of  all  else  mere  stuff  to  show  itself  : 

We  penetrate  our  life  with  such  a  glow 

As  fire  lends  wood  and  iron — this  turns  steel, 

That  burns  to  ash — all's  one,  fire  proves  its  power 

For  good  or  ill,  since  men  call  flare  success. 

But  paint  a  fire,  it  will  not  therefore  burn. 

Light  one  in  me,  I'll  find  it  food  enough  ! 

Why,  to  be  Luther — that's  a  life  to  lead, 

Incomparably  better  than  my  own. 

He  comes,  reclaims  God's  earth  for  God,  he  says, 

Sets  up  God's  rule  again  by  simple  means, 

Re-opens  a  shut  book,  and  all  is  done. 

He  flared  out  in  the  flaring  of  mankind  ; 

Such  Luther's  luck  was — how  shall  such  be  mine  ?" 

ROBERT  BROWNING  :  Bishop  Blougram's  Apology. 


"  I  assure  myself  that  Christ  at  the  last  daie  will  speak  friendly  to  mee  also, 
for  here  he  speaketh  very  unkindely  to  mee.  I  bear  upon  mee  the  hate  and 
envy  of  the  whole  world,  the  hate  of  the  Emperor,  of  the  Pope,  and  of  all 
their  retinue.  Well,  on  in  God's  name,  seeing  I  am  come  into  the  lists  so  will 
I  fight  it  out.  I  know  my  quarrell  and  caus  is  upright  and  just.  The  great- 
est adversarie  I  have  in,  this  caus  is  the  Divel,  and  indeed  he  setteth  on  mee 
so  fiercely  oftentimes  with  this  argument  (thou  art  not  rightly  called),  that 
hee  had  long  since  slain  mee  therewith  if  I  had  not  been  a  Doctor." 
LUTHER  :  Colloquia  Mensalia,  Translated  by 

Captain  Henrie  Bell,  1652. 


1830.]  JOHN  WILSON'S  ORIENTAL  ACQUIREMENTS.  99 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THERE  is  no  recorded  instance  in  the  life  of  any  Oriental 
scholar,  whether  official  or  missionary,  of  such  rapid  but 
thorough  acquisition  of  multifarious  information  regarding 
the  literature  and  the  customs,  as  well  as  the  languages  of 
the  natives,  as  marked  Mr.  Wilson's  first  year's  residence  in 
India.  Sir  William  Jones  began  his  purely  Indian  studies 
at  a  later  period  of  life,  and  carried  them  on  amid  compara- 
tive leisure  and  wealth.  Colebrooke,  the  greatest  of  all  Orien- 
talists, laid  the  foundation  of  his  splendid  acquirements  so 
slowly  that  Sanscrit  at  first  repelled  him,  though  afterwards 
he  would  rise  from  the  gaming-table  at  midnight  to  study  it. 
Ziegenbalg  and  Carey  had  the  same  overmastering  motive  as 
John  Wilson,  but  the  former  hardly  went  beyond  the  one 
vernacular — Tamul,  and  the  latter  was  distracted  by  the  hard- 
ships of  poverty  and  a  discontented  wife ;  so  that  he  began 
by  working  as  an  indigo-planter  when  learning  Bengalee. 
Mr.  Wilson  not  only  mastered  Marathee,  but  Goojaratee ;  to 
these  he  soon  added  Hindostanee  and  Persian,  while  almost 
his  earliest  work  in  Bombay  was  the  preparation  of  a  Hebrew 
and  Marathee  grammar  for  the  Jews,  there  known  as  ^Beni- 
Israel.  Thus  its  four  great  communities,  Hindoo  and  Muham- 
madan,  Parsee  and  Jewish,  he  was  early  prepared  to  influence, 
while  he  had  from  the  first  attained  sufficient  fluency  in  Portu- 
guese to  care  for  the  large  number  of  half-caste  descendants 
of  our  predecessors  in  the  island.  A  scholarly  knowledge  of 
Arabic  he  was  later  in  finding  leisure  to  acquire.  But  his 
advance  in  Sanscrit  seems  to  have  been  parallel  with  his 


100  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1830. 

acquisition  of  Marathee,  so  that  we  find  him  from  the  very 
first  confuting  the  Brahmans  out  of  their  own  sacred  books 
as  Paul  did  in  the  case  of  the  Athenians  and  the  Cretans. 
This  knowledge  he  steadily  extended  to  the  more  obscure  and 
esoteric  dialects  of  the  older  Hindoo  tongues,  on  which  the 
various  sects  of  quasi-dissenters,  like  the  Sikhs  and  the  Vaish- 
navas,  had  their  authoritative  scriptures.  He  was  early  a  col- 
lector of  Oriental  manuscripts.  Nor  was  he  content  with 
this.  He  employed  Brahmans  to  gather  information  for  him 
on  a  definite  principle,  and  wherever  he  went  he  was  constant 
in  his  cross-examination  of  the  people  and  their  priests.  In 
1829  we  find  the  first  example  of  this  recorded  in  one  of  his 
promised  circular  letters  to  the  Edinburgh  University's  Asso- 
ciation of  Theological  Students  : — 

"  I  have  now  seen  a  little  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  portions  of 
the  great  family  of  man  ;  and  I  am  filled  with  horror  and  amazement 
at  its  utter  alienation  from  God.  The  Hindoos  do  not  even  in  pro- 
fession serve  the  Creator.  They  follow  a  course  which  is  altogether 
opposed  to  reason  and  to  natural  conscience.  They  are  the  votaries  of 
a  religious  system,  of  the  moral  obliquities  of  which  it  is  impossible  to 
form  a  right  conception.  The  individuals  among  them  who  act  as 
their  priests  are  very  numerous,  and  very  deceitful ;  and  their  efforts 
are  uniformly  exerted  to  confirm  their  less  enlightened  brethren  in  all 
their  superstitious  doctrines  and  practices.  At  some  future  time  I 
hope  to  be  able  to  furnish  you  with  more  ample  details  on  this 
and  similar  subjects.  For  the  last  three  months  one  of  the  most 
intelligent  Brahmans  in  this  part  of  the  country  has  been  employed 
by  me  for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  me  with  an  account  of  the  Hindoo 
religion.  I  prepared  a  list  of  queries,  according  to  which  he  arranges 
his  observations  ;  and  I  am  in  the  course  of  receiving  a  more  correct 
view  of  the  doctrines  taught  by  the  Brahmans,  and  the  reasonings  by 
which  they  endeavour  to  defend  them,  than  I  could  otherwise  have 
obtained." 

The  result  of  the  first  fifteen  months'  unwearied  toil  was 
seen  in  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  discussions  on  Christianity, 
forced  on  Mr.  Wilson,  to  his  great  satisfaction,  by  Hindoo, 


1830.]  TURNING  THE  WORLD  UPSIDE  DOWN.  101 

Muhammadan,  and  Parsee  apologists  in  succession.  The  ardent 
and  courageous  scholar,  having  fairly  organised  his  schools, 
and  his  translating  and  preaching  work,  was  by  no  means 
content  to  go  on  in  a  daily  routine,  vaguely  waiting  or  passively 
believing  that  Hindoo  and  Parsee,  Jew  and  Muhammadan, 
would  come  over  to  him.  "  I  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  pro- 
ceed," he  writes  to  more  than  one  of  his  home  correspondents 
in  1831,  "somewhat  out  of  the  course  of  modern  missionary- 
procedure.  The  result  of  my  efforts  has  more  than  realised 
my  expectations.  Matters  I  thought  were  going  on  too 
quietly ;  I  could  see  little  of  that  which  is  spoken  of  in  the 
'Acts  of  the  Apostles'  as  a  turning  of  the  world  upside 
down,  and  nothing  of  that  stir  which  attended  the  labours  of 
the  Apostles  in  the  different  cities  which  they  visited.  There 
was  praying  and  there  was  teaching  in  schools,  and  there 
was  preaching  to  some  extent,  especially  by  our  missionaries ; 
but  there  was  no  attempt  to  make  a  general  impression  on 
the  whole  population  of  a  town  or  province.  '  Drive  gently ' 
was  the  maxim.  I  thought  on  the  days  of  Paul  when  he 
stood  on  Mars'  Hill.  I  thought  on  the  days  of  Luther,  and 
Knox,  and  Calvin,  and  I  began  to  see  that  they  were  right. 
They  announced  with  boldness,  publicly  and  privately,  in  the 
face  of  every  danger,  in  the  midst  of  every  difficulty,  to  high 
and  low,  rich  and  poor,  young  and  old,  and  I  resolved  by 
divine  grace  to  imitate  them.  I  have  consequently  challenged 
Hindoos,  Parsees,  and  Mussulmans  to  the  combat.  The  former 
I  fight  by  the  mouth  principally,  and  the  two  latter  by  the 
pen.  The  consternation  of  many  of  them  I  know  to  be  great, 
and  hundreds  have  heard  the  gospel  in  the  place  of  tens.  I 
have  had  in  the  idolatrous  Bombay,  and  the  still  more  idola- 
trous Nasik,  250  miles  distant,  many  hundreds  for  auditors. 
At  present  I  am  waging  war,  through  the  native  newspapers, 
with  the  Parsees  and  Mussulmans.  They  are  very  indig- 
nant ;  some  of  them  had  got  up  a  petition  praying  Govern- 


102  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1830. 

ment  to  stop  me,  but  this  was  in  vain.  They  did  not  present 
it.  They  show  talent  in  their  communications,  but  with  a 
bad  cause  what  can  they  do  ?  Conscience,  the  Holy  Spirit, 
the  promises  of  God  and  the  providence  of  God,  are  on  our 
side.  0  for  a  pentecostal  day!  This  may  not  be  granted 
during  our  sojourn.  Perhaps  God  only  wishes  us  to  be  as 
the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  'Prepare  ye  the 
way  of  the  Lord.' " 

A  year  before  this,  when  announcing  the  first  of  these 
debates,  he  had  pronounced  it  "  the  first  general  discussion  on 
the  Christian  and  Hindoo  religions  which  has  perhaps  taken 
place  in  India."  This  statement  is  correct,  notwithstanding 
the  "  conferences"  which  the  Lutheran  missionaries  of  Denmark 
had  held  with  the  Tamul  Brahmans  and  Muhammadans  in 
South  India  a  century  before.1  "  Upon  the  6th  of  March  1 707," 
begins  the  record,  "  I,  Bartholomew  Ziegenbalgen,  was  visited 
by  a  grave  and  learned  Brahman ;  and,  asking  him  what  he 
proposed  to  himself  by  his  friendly  visit,  he  replied  that  he 
desired  to  confer  with  me  amicably  about  the  great  things 
and  matters  of  religion."  All  through  the  narration  there  is 
no  sign,  at  that  early  time,  of  the  overturning  process.  In 
truth,  the  good  men  of  that  mission,  which  had  Tranquebar 
for  its  head-quarters,  from  Ziegenbalg  to  Schwartz,  and  to 
this  day,  tolerated  caste  even  at  the  Lord's  table,  and  in  all 
their  converts  save  ordained  natives.  Very  different  was  the 
"turning  upside-down"  of  Mr.  Wilson's  Bombay  discussions, 
and  yet  in  temper  and  in  charity  quite  as  "amicable"  on  his 
part,  though  terribly  in  earnest.  Thus  the  first  began. 

Eama  Chundra,  the  Pooranik  Brahman  who  had  been 
baptized  at  Bankote,  visited  Bombay  in  May  1830,  for  the 

1  See  that  curious  volume  "  Thirty-Four  Conferences  between  the  Danish 
Missionaries  and  the  Malabarian  Brahmins  (or  Heathen  Priests)  in  the  East 
Indies  concerning  the  Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion  :  Together  with  some 
Letters  Written  by  the  Heathens  to  the  said  Missionaries.  Translated  out  of 
the  High  Dutch  by  Mr.  Philipps."  London.  1719. 


1830.]  BRAHMAN  MEETING  BRAHMAN.  103 

purpose  of  declaring  to  his  caste-fellows  and  priestly  col- 
leagues his  reasons  for  forsaking  them.  For  a  time  his  argu- 
ments failed  to  prick  their  apathy.  But  at  last  Pundit 
Lukshmun  Shastree  was  tempted  to  defend  at  great  length 
the  teaching  of  Hindooism  regarding  the  ten  Avatars  or  in- 
carnations of  Vishnoo,  and,  in  the  heat  of  controversy,  to 
refer  the  question  to  five  or  six  Brahmans.  Eama  Chundra 
demanded  a  fair  public  debate.  To  this  the  Pundit  reluc- 
tantly consented,  but  himself  prepared  an  advertisement 
announcing  that  there  would  be  a  discussion  upon  the  evi- 
dences of  the  Hindoo  and  the  Christian  religion  in  the  house 
of  Mr.  Wilson,  at  four  o'clock  on  Friday  the  21st  May;  that 
Rama  Chundra,  formerly  a  Pooranik,  would  defend  the 
Christian  religion;  and  that  Lukshmun,  a  Pooranik,  would, 
"  as  he  felt  disposed,"  take  up  the  side  of  the  Hindoo  religion. 
A  great  crowd  assembled  accordingly,  and  among  them 
upwards  of  a  hundred  Brahmans.  Lukshmun  being  the  secular 
Sanscrit  teacher  of  one  of  the  American  missionaries,  and  Eama 
Chundra  a  convert  of  the  Scottish  missionaries,  both  mission- 
aries were  present.  Mr.  R.  T.  Webb,  as  a  layman  and  a  high 
official,  was  asked  to  keep  order.  The  interest  of  the  whole 
lay  in  the  fact  that  Brahman  met  Brahman ;  the  one  new  to 
the  work  of  Christian  apologetics  and  exposition,  but  assisted 
by  Mr.  Wilson  occasionally ;  the  other  also  helped  by  abler 
reasoners.  Mr.  Wilson  opened  the  proceedings,  which  were 
in  Marathee  with  constant  quotations  of  Sanscrit  si  okas  or 
verses,  by  stating  the  advantages  of  discussion  in  the  attain- 
ment of  truth,  by  exhorting  the  combatants  to  observe  charity 
and  the  audience  to  put  away  prejudice,  and  by  meeting 
only  the  initial  assumption  that  God  had  established  several 
religions,  with  the  remark  that,  as  God  is  the  Father  of 
all  mankind,  he  will  not  appoint  opposing  laws  for  the  regu- 
lation of  his  family.  After  the  first  day  the  Pundit  Lukshmun 
"did  not  long  keep  his  ground."  Rama  Chundra,  "though 


104  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1830. 

he  occasionally  introduced  irrelevant  matter,  and  was  too 
tolerant  of  the  sophistry  of  his  opponents,  acquitted  himself 
in  a  manner  which  greatly  interested  many  of  his  auditors." 
During  the  next  three  days,  accordingly,  the  discussion  fell 
into  abler  hands,  Mr.  Wilson  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the 
Hindoo  side  Nirbhaya  Eama  and  Kisundas  Joguldas,  chief 
pundit  and  principal  pleader  respectively  of  the  highest 
Government  Appellate  Court,  the  Sudder  Adawlut.  The 
Brahmans  were  the  first  to  ask  for  quarter.  The  benefit 
of  the  discussion  was  not  confined  to  the  crowds  who  heard 
it.  Two  editions  of  the  report  in  Marathee  were  speedily 
exhausted;  all  Hindoo  Bombay  talked  of  it;  inquiry  was 
stirred  up  as  nothing  else  could  have  done,  and  the  delusion 
was  dispelled  that  Christianity  feared  the  investigation  of  the 
learned.  True  to  his  wise,  natural,  and  kindly  policy,  in  this 
as  all  through  his  career,  Mr.  Wilson  took  care  that  what  he 
himself  had  learned  as  Western  truth,  but  yet  was  of  Asiatic 
origin  as  to  its  mode,  he  urged  on  Orientals  in  an  Eastern 
form,  and  so  commended  it  to  every  man.  These  extracts 
from  the  report,  giving  the  more  purely  native  part  of  the 
discussion,  will  show  how  it  played,  then  as  still,  in  the 
East  as  of  late  growingly  in  the  West,  around  the  three  great 
questions  of  the  nature  of  God,  the  relation  of  morality  to 
religion,  the  origin  and  the  means  of  getting  rid  of  sin  here 
and  hereafter. 

Eama  Chundra  began  by  declaring  that  he  had  abandoned 
the  Hindoo  religion  because  the  statements  of  its  scriptures 
were  inconsistent  with  truth.  Finding  that  the  chief  pun- 
dit, Mrbhaya,  demanded  proof  that  there  is  one  God,  he 
pointed  to  the  works  of  God,  and  quoted,  as  binding  on  his 
opponent,  the  sloka  of  the  Bhagavat-Geet,  to  the  effect  that 
there  is  one  Supreme  Being,  the  author  of  birth,  life,  and 
death. 

"  R.  G.  In  the  Hindoo  Sliastres  it  is  written  that  God  was  at  first 


1830.]  GOD'S  SEPOYS.  105 

destitute  of  qualities,  and  that  afterwards  he  became  possessed  of 
suttva,  ruja,  and  tuma.  In  this  statement  three  difficulties  present 
themselves  to  my  mind.  The  declaration  that  God  was  destitute  of 
qualities  tends  highly  to  his  dishonour  ;  and  I  am  unable  to  under- 
stand, if  he  was  destitute  of  power,  how  he  could  become  possessed  of 
it.  I  cannot  admit  that  such  qualities  as  ruja  and  tuma  are  to  be 
applied  to  the  Divinity.1  The  Avatars  (incarnations)  of  Vishnoo  have 
taken  human  life  and  committed  other  bad  actions,  on  this  account 
I  put  no  faith  in  them  ;  but  not  so  with  the  Avatar  of  Christ ;  he  has 
obeyed  God  in  all  things,  and  given  his  life  for  man.  As  then  the 
onion  and  the  musk  are  known  by  their  odour,  and  the  tree  is  known 
by  its  fruits,  so  are  the  Avatars  to  be  known  by  their  works.  Their 
works  are  evil,  and  therefore  I  renounce  them. 

"  Lukshmun.  I  ask  a  question — If  a  subject  commits  a  crime,  is  the 
king  to  be  blamed  for  punishing  him?  Is  God  to  be  blamed  for 
taking  an  Avatar  to  punish  the  Rakshusas  (demons)  ? 

"  E.  G.  Amongst  men  a  king  must  punish  an  offender  according  to 
his  crime  ;  but  God  has  established  principles,  from  which  men  by 
their  own  wickedness  come  to  evil,  and  go  to  hell,  therefore  there  was 
no  occasion  for  an  Avatar  to  come  into  the  world  for  that  purpose. 

"  Nirbhaya.  God  was  not  wholly  included  in  the  Avatar,  and  there- 
fore the  sins  of  the  Avatars  are  not  to  be  laid  to  God. 

"  R.  C.  Suppose  them  to  be  so  far  disconnected  with  God  as  to  be 
only  his  messengers — if  they  are  true  they  will  act  rightly. 
:       "  Kisundass.  Yes  !  the  Avatars  were  God's  Sepoys. 

l  The  published  report  of  the  discussion  here  quotes  the  explanation  of 
these  terms  by  Mr.  Ward  of  Serampore,  in  his  View  of  the  History, 
Literature,  and  Mythology  of  the  Hindoos,  a  work  of  surprising  industry  to 
have  appeared  so  early  as  the  beginning  of  this  century.  "We  may  now  sub- 
stitute the  latest  explanations  by  Professor  Monier  Williams  in  his  Indian 
Wisdom  : — "  When  the  universal  and  infinite  being  Brahma  (nom.  case  of  the 
neuter  Brahman) — the  only  really  existing  entity,  wholly  without  form  and 
unaffected  by  the  three  Goonas  or  by  qualities  of  any  kind — wished  to  create 
for  his  own  entertainment  the  phenomena  of  the  universe,  he  assumed  the 
quality  of  activity  (rajas)  and  became  a  male  person,  as  Brahma  (nom.  case 
masc.),  the  Creator.  Next,  in  the  progress  of  still  further  self-evolution,  he 
willed  to  invest  himself  with  the  second  quality  of  goodness  (sattva],  as 
Vishnoo,  the  Preserver  ;  and  with  the  third  quality  of  darkness  (tamas],  as 
Siva  the  Destroyer."  This  development  of»  the. doctrine  of  triple  manifesta- 
tion (tri-moorti],  which  appears  first  in  the  Brahmanised  version  of  the  Indian 
Epics,  had  already  been  adumbrated  in  the  Yeda,  in  the  triple  form  of  fire,  and 
in  the  triad  of  gods,  Agni,  Soorya,  and  Indra,  and  in  other  ways. 


106  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1830. 

"  R.  C.  If  God's  Sepoys,  why  did  they  not  act  according  to  his 
will  ?  If  they  commit  sin,  how  are  they  to  be  known  as  his  Sepoys. 

"  K.  They  are  known  by  their  badge,  and  not  by  their  conduct. 

"  R.  C.  Where  is  the  badge  ?  Nirbhaya  Rama  says  they  are  only 
parts  of  God  ;  but  if  parts,  they  will  be  like  himself  in  substance  :  but 
God  has  no  parts,  he  is  everywhere  present. 

" Skas.  If  they  are  not  from  God,  whence  are  they  ? 

"  R.  C.  They  may  have  been  men,  and  therefore  they  are  not  to  be 
worshipped. 

"  K.  But  if  they  are  great  and  powerful,  and  are  sent  in  the  place 
of  God,  with  power  to  punish  the  Rakshusas,  they  are  as  kings,  who 
are  not  to  be  blamed  for  punishing  offenders. 

"  R.  C.  Are  we  then  to  bow  down  to  all  who  do  any  wonderful 
acts  ?  Their  works  prove  that  they  are  not  part  of  God.  If  I  have  a 
piece  of  gold,  and  break  it  into  many  pieces,  the  qualities  in  each  will 
still  remain  the  same. 

"  K.  In  the  God  you  worship  you  admit  three  persons  :  and  why 
then  do  you  reject  ten  Avatars  ? 

"  R.  C.  Not  so  :  in  the  Deity  there  are  three  persons,  but  one  God  ; 
as  in  the  sun, — there  is  the  sun,  the  light,  and  the  heat,  but  all  in- 
cluded in  one  sun.  I  utterly  reject  the  Avatars.  Why  did  they  take 
place  ?  The  object  of  the  Fish  Avatar  was  the  discovery  of  the  stolen 
Vedas.  The  object  of  the  Tortoise  was  the  placing  the  newly  created 
earth  upon  his  back  to  keep  it  firm.  The  object  of  the  Boar  Avatar 
was  to  draw  up  the  earth  from  the  waters,  after  it  was  sunken  by  the 
Devtuya.  The  object  of  the  Man-lion  Avatar  was  to  destroy  the 
rebellious  giants,  Hirunuyaksha  and  Hirunyukushipoo.  The  object  of 
the  Dwarf  Avatar  was  the  destruction  of  the  religious  Bulee.  The 
object  of  the  Purushoo  Rama  Avatar  was  the  destruction  of  the 
Kshutriyas.  The  object  of  the  Rama  Avatar  was  the  destruction  of 
Ravuna.  The  object  of  the  Krishna  Avatar  was  to  destroy  the  giant 
Kungshu.  These  are  the  Avatars  which,  you  say,  have  already  taken 
place.  Is  there  any  appearance  of  God  in  such  acts  ?  Could  he  not 
have  accomplished  these  objects  without  assuming  an  Avatar  ?  Did 
his  taking  a  form  make  the  work  easier  ?  I  maintain,  then,  the  reason 
for  such  Avatars  is  absurd.  This  is  not  the  case  with  Christ :  he  came  * 
that  the  punishment  of  sin  might  be  endured,  and  God's  hatred  of  sin 
manifested. 

"  Shulchurama  Shastree.  Cannot  a  king  do  what  he  pleases  1  Can- 
not he  go  into  the  bazaar  and  carry  off  what  he  pleases  ?  Who  can  call 
in  question  his  doings  ? 


1830.]     THE  AVATARS  AND  THE  INCARNATION  OF  CHRIST.        107 

"  Mr.  W.  This  is  one  of  your  other  modes  of  explaining  the  actions 
of  Krishna.  A  king,  by  his  power,  may  prevent  inquiry  into  his  con- 
duct ;  but  he  assuredly  can  sin.  If  the  greatness  of  Krishna  is  to  be 
considered,  it  must  be  viewed  as  an  aggravation  of  his  faults.  Utterly 
opposed  to  these  Avatars  is  that  of  Christ,  in  whom  we  wish  you  to 
trust.  He  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners.  By  his  miracles  he 
proved  his  divine  mission.  His  doctrines  were  holy  and  his  works 
were  holy.  He  voluntarily  gave  his  life  a  ransom  for  us.  He  illus- 
trated the  divine  mercy,  and  the  divine  holiness.  He  procured  a 
righteousness  for  man.  He  prays  for  man  in  heaven.  He  is  able  to 
save  man.  The  books  which  contain  his  history  are  true.  They  are 
not  like  the  Hindoo  Shastres.  In  them  we  find  no  foolish  stories,  no 
errors,  and  no  utter  want  of  evidence.  Read  them.  Search  and  pray 
for  wisdom.  Embrace  the  truth. 

"  Shuk.  How  can  you  show  that  God  has  forbidden  the  worship  of 
idols  ?  for  where  there  is  one  who  does  not,  there  are  an  hundred  who 
do  worship  idols. 

"  R.  C.  All  men  are  sinners,  and  are  inclined  to  depart  from  God. 

"  Mr.  W.  Are  the  idols  like  God  ? 

"  Shuk  Not  so  :  but  if  obeisance  is  made  to  the  shoe  of  a  king  in 
the  presence  of  his  servants,  and  they  bear  the  intelligence  to  the  king 
that  such-a-one  has  great  respect  for  him,  for  he  every  day  conies  and 
makes  obeisance  before  his  shoe,  would  you  not  consider  this  as  paying 
respect  to  the  king  ? — so  is  it  in  worshipping  the  Deity  by  the  idol. 

"  Mr.  W.  By  this  reasoning  you  make  God  at  a  distance  ;  and  we 
say  that  he  is  everywhere  present,  and  that  he  is  everywhere  propi- 
tious. Is  God  then  in  the  idol  ? 

"  Shuk  Yes,  in  every  thing. 

"  Mr.  W.  You  say  that  God  is  in  a  particular  manner  in  the  idol, 
and  that  he  is  brought  in  by  the  Muntras  (invocations) ;  but  if  a 
Mussulman  touches  it  he  goes  out ! — Even  your  old  Shastres  say  that 
you  are  not  to  worship  idols.  The  Vedantee  philosophers  near  Calcutta 
assert  this  ;  and  they  have  produced  many  passages  in  support  of  their 
opinion.  There  is  one  in  the  Bhagavat  Geet. 

"  Luk.  It  is  said  that  man  cannot  approach  God  ;  therefore  he  must 
first  propitiate  Krishna.  By  Krishna  God  may  be  approached,  and  in 
no  other  way. 

"  R.  G.  You  say,  then,  that  Krishna  is  propitiated  by  idols,  and 
that  through  him  the  Deity.  But  suppose  I  am  hungry,  and  have  a 
handful  of  rice  ;  if  I  throw  that  direct  into  the  fire  it  will  be  burnt 
up,  and  I  shall  be  deprived  of  my  food  ;  but  I  must  have  a  vessel  to 


108  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1830. 

put  it  in,  that  it  may  be  put  on  the  fire  and  be  cooked  :  but  suppose 
the  vessel  I  select  is  a  dirty  one,  or  a  cracked  one,  then  my  rice  will  be 
spoiled  in  cooking,  or  the  water  will  escape,  and  it  will  not  be  cooked  ; 
and  in  either  case  I  shall  remain  hungry.  I  must  then  be  careful  that 
I  select  a  proper  vessel.  So  must  it  be  with  your  Avatar — (incarna- 
tion). Take  care  and  get  a  proper  one. 

"  K.  We  should  follow  him  only  if  his  works  are  good,  and  not 
otherwise. 

"  R.  C.  Therefore  you  must  see  and  get  a  proper  mediator. 

"  ShuJc.  I  hold  that  by  the  performance  of  ablution  the  mind  is 
washed  ;  for  all  evil  proceeds  from  evil  thoughts  ;  and  by  the  perform- 
ance of  ablution  morning  and  evening  I  am  brought  to  think  of  this, 
and  thereby  a  check  is  thrown  upon  evil  thoughts,  and  so  the  mind  is 
purified. 

"  R.  C.  In  your  own  Shastres  the  inefficiency  of  these  remedies  is 
declared.1 

"  K.  I  allow  that  unless  the  mind  is  firm  these  austerities  are  of 
no  avail. 

" Brahman.  What  is  sin  ? 

"  Mr.  W.  The  breaking  of  the  law  of  God. 

" Brahman.  How  did  sin  get  into  the  world  ? 

"  Mr.  W.  How  shall  sin  get  out  of  the  world  ?  This  should  be  the 
great  inquiry.  When  a  man  is  seized  with  cholera  he  does  not  distress 
himself  by  inquiring  about  the  manner  in  which  it  came  to  him,  but 
earnestly  seeks  a  cure.  The  grand  reason  why  we  object  to  your 
remedies  is,  that  they  all  proceed  on  the  principle  that  man  is  saved  by 
his  own  works.  Admit  this  principle  and  you  destroy  the  kingdom  of 
God." 

It  is  "  the  immemorial  quest  and  old  complaint."  In  the 
Brahmans'  conferences  with  Ziegenbalg  the  same  fixed  ideas 

1  Will  water  absolve  from  sin  ? — what,  then,  are  there  no  fishes  in  the 
river  ?  Will  fasting  absolve  from  sin  ? — does  not  the  snake  feed  on  air  Avhen 
he  can  get  nothing  else  ?  Will  living  upon  raw  fruits  and  herbs  absolve  from 
sin  ? — what !  do  not  the  goat  and  other  animals  feed  on  them  daily  ?  Will 
abstinence  from  drink  absolve  from  sin  ? — does  the  Chatuk  bird  ever  drink  ? 
Will  living  in  a  hole  under  ground  absolve  from  sin  ? — what !  are  there  no  rats 
in  the  holes  in  the  jungle  ?  Will  covering  the  body  with  ashes  absolve  from 
sin  ? — does  not  the  donkey  roll  in  the  dust  all  day  long  ?  Will  sitting  in  a 
state  of  absorption  absolve  from  sin  ?— does  not  the  Bugla  bird  sit  all  day  long 
on  the  banks  of  a  river  ?  Therefore  none  of  these  austerities  can  be  of  any 
avail  unless  the  mind  is  upright. 


1830.]  KELIGION   VERSUS  MORALITY.  109 

of  the  pantheist,  the  polytheist,  the  ritualist,  ever  recur,  pre- 
faced always  by  the  assumption  which  Mr.  Wilson  put  out  of 
the  controversy  at  starting,  that  to  save  the  European  one  way 
and  the  Hindoo  another  "  is  one  of  the  pastimes  and  diversions 
of  Almighty  God,"  as  the  Tamul  priest  of  Vishnoo  expressed 
it.  The  argument  of  Kisundass,  that  the  nine  Avatars  or  in- 
carnations of  Yishnoo — the  tenth,  Kalki,  is  to  appear  as  a  comet 
in  the  sky,  on  a  white  horse,  with  an  apocalyptic  sword, 
to  restore  the  righteousness  of  the  golden  age — were  God's 
Sepoys,  known  by  their  badge  and  not  by  their  conduct ;  and 
that  of  Shookaram,  that  as  a  king  God  can  sin  as  he  pleases, 
denote  the  universal  belief  of  the  Hindoos  that  morality  and 
god- worship  have  different  and  frequently  opposite  spheres. 
Since,  about  1864,  Sir  Henry  Maine  first  brought  his  study  of 
early  institutions  and  his  official  task  of  constant  legislation 
to  bear  on  Hindoo  society,  this  has  been  recognised,  and 
students  of  the  science  of  religion,  who  are  at  the  same  time 
familiar  with  the  social  phenomena  of  native  society,  have 
worked  it  out.1  Hence  missionary  and  legislator  alike,  to- 
gether as  well  as  separately,  each  in  his  own  sphere,  have  to 
act  so  that  the  crimes  sanctioned  by  the  theology  of  the  Hin- 
doos shall  be  prohibited  by  an  application  of  the  moral  law  of 
Christianity,  and  the  jurisprudence  of  the  civilised  nations  of 
the  West ;  while  the  legislator  has  to  guard  against  the  oppo- 
site extreme  of  seeming  to  sanction,  and  of  really  perpetuating 
with  a  new  authority,  the  vast  mass  of  Hindoo  religious  and 
therefore  civil  law,  which  he  must  leave  untouched.  From 
Lord  William  Bentinck  and  Macaulay  to  Lord  Lawrence  and 
Sir  Henry  Maine,  and  from  Claudius  Buchanan  and  Carey  to 
Duff  and  Wilson,  this  double  process  has  gone  on,  till  India 
enjoys  a  more  humane  criminal  code  and  a  more  perfect 
toleration  of  creeds  and  opinions  than  Great  Britain  itself. 

1  See  Mr.  A.  C.  Lyall's  papers  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  especially  that  at 
p.  560  of  the  number  for  April  1878. 


110  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1831. 

The  excitement  caused  by  this  discussion  among  the 
natives  of  Bombay  had  not  passed  away  when,  in  February 
1831, 'another  champion  arrived  to  renew  the  controversy. 
This  was  Mora  Bhatta  Dandekara,  who  thought  to  succeed 
where  the  pundit  Lukshmun  and  his  friends  had  failed. 
Many  Brahmans  were  present.  "  They  brought  their  chief 
champion  every  day  in  a  carriage,  with  garlands  of  flowers 
hanging  about  him.  They  could  not,  however,  defend  their 
religion,"  writes  Mr.  Wilson  to  his  father.  The  debate  con- 
tinued during  six  successive  evenings.  Mr.  Webb  again  pre- 
sided at  the  request  of  both  parties.  The  Brahman  convert, 
Kama  Chundra,  again  took  part  in  it,  but  the  chief  combatant 
for  Christianity  was  Mr.  Wilson  himself.  "  The  Brahmans 
were  the  first  to  solicit  a  cessation  of  hostilities."  It  was  left 
on  this  occasion  to  the  Hindoos  to  publish  a  report  of  the 
proceedings,  and  several  wealthy  men  subscribed  for  the  pur- 
pose. But  the  Bhatta  had  not  taken  notes,  and  he  preferred 
to  publish,  as  his  defence,  a  tract  on  the  Verification  of  the 
Hindoo  Religion,  to  which  he  challenged  a  reply.  The  debate 
had,  as  on  the  former  occasion,  referred  principally  to  the 
character  of  the  Divine  Being,  the  means  of  salvation,  the 
principles  of  morals,  and  the  allotment  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments. The  Verification  reiterates  the  arguments  of  the 
former  apologists  for  Hindooism,  but  it  is  of  interest  from  the 
attacks  it  makes  on  some  statements  of  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures which  it  first  perverts.  This,  for  instance,  is  the  ren- 
dering of  the  opening  verse  of  the  fourth  Gospel : — "  In  the 
beginning  was  word.  That  word  was  in  the  heart  of  God  ; 
and  the  same  word  was  manifested  in  the  world  in  the  form 
of  Christ."  The  real  value  of  the  tract,  however,  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  called  forth  Mr.  Wilson's  first  Exposure  of  the 
Hindoo  Religion,  to  which  a  translation  of  it  by  Mr.  Nesbit 
is  prefixed  : — "  The  Bhatta,  though  he  has  in  some  instances 
disguised  the  truth,  writes  generally  in  support  of  what  has 


1834.]  HIS  EXPOSURES  OF  HINDOOISM.  Ill 

been  called  the  exoteric  system  of  Hindooism ;  and  a  little 
reflection  will  show  that  the  attempt  to  uphold  any  other  can 
only  be  made  with  the  sacrifice  of  the  pretensions  to  inspira- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  Hindoo  scriptures,  and  with  admis- 
sions which  must  prove  destructive  to  the  popular  supersti- 
tion. The  efforts  which  have  hitherto  been  made  to  refine  on 
the  Brahmanical  faith  have  hitherto  proved,  and  must  ever 
prove,  completely  abortive.  It  is  essentially  distinguished  by 
exaggeration,  confusion,  contradiction,  puerility,  and  immor- 
ality." Such  was  Mr.  Wilson's  earlier  impression  of  a  system, 
with  even  the  innermost  recesses  of  which  further  study  and 
experience  were  to  make  him  so  familiar,  that  the  Government 
and  the  Judges  frequently  appealed  to  him  as  the  highest 
trustworthy  authority  for  political  and  legal  ends. 

The  Brahmans,  thus  twice  met  on  the  later  Pooranik  or 
Brahmanical  side,  determined  to  return  to  the  charge,  this 
time  on  the  earlier  Vedantic,  or  what  was  then  called  the  eso- 
teric ground.  One  Narayan  Eao,  English  teacher  in  the  Eaja 
of  Satara's  school,  accordingly  wrote  a  reply  to  the  first 
Exposure  of  Hindooism,  under  the  signature  of  "An 
Espouser  of  his  Country's  Keligion."  Mora  Bhatta  edited  the 
work,  and  took  it  to  Mr.  Wilson.  Hence  his  publication, 
towards  the  close  of  1834,  of  A  Second  Exposure  of  the 
Hindoo  Religion.  The  title-page  bears  these  lines  of  Sir 
William,  Jones  : — 

"  Oh  !  bid  the  patient  Hindoo  rise  and  live. 
His  erring  mind  that  wizard  lore  beguiles, 

Clouded  by  priestly  wiles, 
To  senseless  nature  bows  for  nature's  God." 

Like  its  predecessor,  this  Exposure  is  a  model  of  kindly  con- 
troversy and  lofty  courtesy  to  antagonists.  "  I  beg  of  them," 
he  writes  to  the  Hindoos  in  his  preface,  "  to  continue  to 
extend  credit  to  me  and  to  my  fellow-labourers  for  the  bene- 
volence of  our  intentions,  and  to  believe  that  anything  which 


112  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

is  inconsistent  with  the  deepest  charity  is  not  what  we  would 
for  one  moment  seek  to  defend."  Both  works  caused  a  greater 
demand  for  copies  than  was  expected,  and  called  forth  many 
letters  from  natives  assuring  the  writer  that  they  had  been 
thus  led  to  lose  all  confidence  in  the  religion  of  their  fathers. 
The  books  were  translated  into  Bengalee  and  other  Indian 
vernaculars,  and  continued  to  be  long  useful  in  letting  light 
into  many  a  native's  mind.  Mr.  Wilson  made  good  use  of 
the  admissions  of  the  Bengalee  theist  Eammohun  Eoy,who  had 
at  that  time  written  his  principal  works  and  had  been  care- 
fully answered  by  Carey  and  Marshman.  The  Second  Exposure, 
dedicated  to  Mr.  James  Farish  who  acted  as  interim  Governor, 
has  a  further  literary  interest,  as  showing  Mr.  Wilson's  steady 
as  well  as  rapid  advance  in  his  Sanscrit  studies,  and  in  the 
consequent  use  of  the  Vedic,  Pooranic,  and  Epic  literature,  for 
the  demolition  of  error.  His  preface  thus  concludes  : — "  To 
several  friends  I  am  indebted  for  the  loan  of  several  Sanskrit 
MSS.  which  were  not  in  my  possession,  and  which  I  have 
used  for  enabling  me  to  judge  of  the  fidelity  of  existing 
translations  and  opinions,  and  correctly  to  make  some  original 
extracts.  It  was  my  intention  at  one  time  to  have  quoted 
more  liberally  from  the  Upanishads  than  I  have  done.  The 
inspection  of  a  great  number  of  them  led  me  to  perceive  that, 
while  they  abound  in  metaphysical  errors,  there  is  a  great 
accordance  in  the  few  principles  which  they  respectively  un- 
fold, and  to  which  attention  should  be  particularly  directed. 
-Bombay,  October  1834." 

At  the  time  of  the  second  of  the  three  discussions  with 
Brahmans  on  the  Christian  and  Hindoo  religions,  Mr.  Wilson 
found  himself  challenged  to  an  encounter  on  the  two  very 
different  fields  of  the  Zoroastrianism  of  the  Parsees  and  the 
ethics  and  theology  of  the  Muhammadan  Koran.  His 
review  of  the  Armenian  History  of  the  Religious  Wars  be- 
tween the  Persians  and  Armenians,  in  the  Oriental  Christian 


1833.]  HIS  EEFUTATION  OF  MUHAMMAD ANISM.  113 

Spectator  of  July  and  August  1831,  tempted  the  descendants 
of  the  persecuting  Magi,  now  peaceable  and  loyal  enough 
because  themselves  persecuted  exiles,  to  defend  the  Avasla, 
their  sacred  book.  This  controversy  opens  out  so  wide  a 
field,  alike  in  itself  and  in  Mr.  Wilson's  career  as  a  scholar  and 
a  missionary,  that  we  shall  reserve  it  and  its  consequences 
for  another  chapter.  But  an  expression  adverse  to  Muham- 
madanism  in  one  of  Mr.  Wilson's  letters  to  the  Parsees,  called 
forth  a  champion  of  Muhammad  and  the  Koran,  and  led  to 
the  publication  of  a  Refutation  of  Muhammadanism,  in 
Hindostanee,  Goojaratee,  and  Persian,1  which  may  be  placed 
side  by  side  with  the  two  exposures  of  Hindooism,  though  no 
separate  English  edition  of  it  has  appeared,  beyond  fragments 
in  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator  from  May  to  August  1833. 
"  Hadjee  Muhammad  Hashim  of  Ispahan,  who,  as  his  name 
shows,  had  performed  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  and  was  the 
most  learned  Moulvie  in  Bombay,  challenged  me,"  writes  Mr. 
Wilson,  "to  the  proof  of  the  licentiousness  and  imposture  of  the 
author  of  the  Koran,  and  I  readily  attempted  to  establish  my 
position.  After  several  letters  had  appeared  in  the  native 
newspapers,  the  Hadjee  came  forward  with  a  pamphlet  of 
considerable  size  in  Goojaratee  and  Persian,  in  which  he 
evinces  at  once  great  sophistry  and  great  ability."  His 
Eeply  to  Hajee  Mahomed  ffashim's  Defence  of  the  Islamic 
Faith  is,  if  we  except  the  necessarily  imperfect  tract  of 
Henry  Martyn  continued  by  Dr.  Lee,  the  first  controversial 
treatise  of  the  kind  in  point  of  time,  as  the  Exposures  of 
Hindooism  are.2  Dr.  Pfander  had  not  yet  begun  that  series 

1  Raddi-i-din  Mussulmani  is  the  Persian  title. 

2  "We  do  not  reckon  the  treatise  on  Christianity,  written  for  the  Emperor 
Akbar  by  Hieronymo  Xavier,  the  nephew  of  the  great  missionary,  although 
it  was  answered  twelve  years  after  it  appeared,  in  1609,  by  Ahmed  Ibn  Zain- 
al-Abidin,  and  this  called  forth  a  rejoinder,  in  Latin,  from  Phillip  Gaudag- 
noli  of  the  Propaganda  College,  Rome.     Pfander's  first  and  ablest  treatise, 
the  since  well-known  Mizan  ul  ffaqq,  or  "A  Resolution  of  the  Controversy 
between  Christians  and  Muhammadans,"  was  published  in  Persian  in  1835,  at 

I 


114  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1833. 

of  Christian  apologies  in  controversy  with  Muhammadans, 
which  have  done  more  than  any  other  instrument  to  shake 
the  apparently  immovable  confidence  of  the  votaries  of  Islam 
in  Agra  and  Delhi,  in  Allahabad  and  Lucknow,  in  Lahore 
and  Peshawur,  in  Constantinople  and  Cairo,  where  more  than 
one  learned  Moulvie  now  preaches  the  faith  which  once  he 
attacked,  or  even  translates  the  Christian  Scriptures.1  It  was 
Pfander's  representation  of  the  need  for  a  biography  of  the 
prophet,  suitable  for  the  perusal  of  his  followers,  that  led  Sir 
William  Muir,  when  a  busy  settlement  officer  and  revenue 
secretary  at  Agra,  to  prepare  his  Life  of  Mahomet,  which  is 
the  greatest  in  the  English  language,  as  Sprenger's  is  in  the 
German.  But  no  one  can  peruse  Mr.  Wilson's  Eeply  to 
Muhammad  Hashim  without  remarking  how  he  has,  in  brief, 
anticipated  Muir  in  shrewd  insight,  criticism,  and  keen  ex- 
posure of  the  moral  irregularities  and  shortcomings  of 
Muhammad's  Koran  and  his  private  life.  In  twenty -one 
necessarily  condensed  chapters  Mr.  Wilson  covers  the  whole 
field  of  the  controversy,  save  on  its  historical  side — which  was 
not  raised.  That  it  went  very  far  down  into  practical  life  as 
well  as  ethical  principles,  these  preliminary  letters  on  the 
subject  which  gave  rise  to  the  discussion  will  show. 

"  John  Wilson,  a  servant  of  Jesus  the  Messiah,  presents  his  saluta- 
tion to  Haji  Muhammad  Hashim. 

"  I  have  perused  your  letter  in  the  Bombay  Sumachar  respecting 

the  Fort  of  Shushy,  Georgia,  where  he  was  one  of  the  German  Mission,  and 
whence  he  was  driven  in  1836  by  the  Eussian  Government,  with  its  usual 
intolerance  to  all  but  its  own  political  and  autocratic  division  of  the  Greek 
Church.  The  Hindostanee  translation  was  lithographed  at  Mirzapore  in  1843. 
See  the  Article  in  Vol.  IV.  of  the  Calcutta  Review  on  the  Muhammadan  con- 
troversy, written,  we  believe,  by  Sir  William  Muir.  At  a  later  period  Wilson 
refers  to  this  article  in  a  note  to  his  Lands  of  the  Bible. 

1  See  Syud  Ahmed's  Mahomedan  Commentary  on  the  Holy  Bible.  Two 
Parts,  quarto.  Allygurh,  1862-5  ;  which  the  Venerable  Archdeacon  Pratt 
reviewed  in  the  Friend  of  India  of  1862,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Robson  treated 
in  the  British  and  Foreign  Evangelical  Review  of  July  1867. 


1833.]  MUHAMMADAN  POLYGAMY  AND  DIVOECE.  115 

the  transactions  of  Muhammad  with  the  female  sex,  and  I  am  not  a 
little  surprised  at  the  manner  in  which  you  have  expressed  yourself  on 
this  subject.  It  is  my  intention,  should  you-  continue  to  desire  me,  to 
enter  fully  into  its  consideration.  At  present  I  shall  confine  myself  to 
your  remarks  on  polygamy  and  divorce. 

"  You  say  that  for  a  man  to  have  more  than  one  wife  is  a  good 
thing.  You  will  find  it  impossible  to  prove  that  this  is  the  case. 
There  are  many  reasons  for  differing  from  you  in  opinion.  I  here 
mention  the  most  important  of  them.  1.  After  God  had  created  Adam 
the  first  man,  he  gave  him  only  one  wife  named  Huwa.  If  it  had 
been  good  for  man  to  engage  in  polygamy,  God  would  have  given 
Adam,  whom  he  created  in  a  happy  state,  more  than  one  wife.  2. 
There  are  not  more  women  than  men  in  the  world  ;  and  when  poly- 
gamy is  indulged  in  some  men  must  be  deprived  of  wives,  which  you 
must  allow  to  be  a  great  evil.  It  is  manifest,  then,  from  this  circum- 
stance, that  to  have  more  than  one  wife  is  contrary  to  the  course  of 
nature.  It  is  because  polygamy  is  practised  in  the  Muhammadan 
states  that  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  have  hijre.  3.  Polygamy  is 
detrimental  to  the  increase  of  population.  ...  4.  Polygamy  is  hurtful 
to  the  right  education  of  children.  When  one  man  has  a  great  number 
of  sons  and  daughters,  with  a  variety  of  mothers,  he  cannot  manage 
and  instruct  them  so  well  as  he  would  be  able  to  do  if  they  had  only 
one  mother.  5.  Polygamy  is  the  frequent  cause  of  a  great  many 
quarrels  and  jealousies  among  the  different  wives.  This  you  very  well 
know,  and  this  you  allow,  when  you  have  to  speak  of  divorce  as  a 
'  quick  expedient  for  settling  disputes.'  6.  It  is  impossible  for  a 
husband  with  a  plurality  of  wives  to  treat  them  all  with  the  love  and 
affection  which  is  due  to  them.  Wherever  polygamy  has  prevailed, 
the  female  character  has  become  degraded  and  debased  to  an  extent 
which  I  cannot  describe.  As  a  wise  man  consider  these  arguments, 
and  never  again  attempt  to  vindicate  polygamy  nor  Muhammad,  who, 
to  please  his  disciples,  allowed  them  to  take  four  wives  to  themselves, 
who  took  four  times  that  number  to  himself,  and  who  even  promised 
wives  to  his  disciples  when  they  should  get  to  heaven.  You  wished 
me  to  state  my  opinion.  I  have  now  expressed  it. 

"You  approve  of  divorce  for  the  settling  of  disputes  and  other 
objects  of  a  like  nature,  according  to  the  will  of  the  husband.  But  on 
this  point,  as  well  as  on  the  preceding,  you  will  find  it  very  difficult  to 
show  cause.  When  divorces,  like  those  of  which  you  speak,  take  place, 
the  mother  is  banished  from  the  children  to  whom  she  gave  birth,  on 
whom  her  affections  are  placed,  and  in  whom  she  undoubtedly  has  a 


116  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1833. 

property  as  well  as  their  father.  The  children  are  bereft  of  their 
mother  whom  they  love,  and  deprived  of  her  tender  care.  The  women, 
who  fear  that  they  may  be  driven  away  for  a  slight  cause,  are  often 
tempted  to  take  the  common  property  to  themselves,  that  they  may  be 
prepared  for  the  day  of  evil.  The  men,  who  feel  that  they  have  the 
power  which  you  approve,  are  ready  to  part,  according  to  their  tempta- 
tions, with  their  lawful  wives,  that  they  may  get  new  ones." 

"  IN  THE  NAME  OF  GOD,  THE  GREATEST  OF  ALL  NAMES. 

"  The  least  of  the  slaves  of  God,  Haji  Muhammad  Hashim,  sends 
his  compliments  to  John  Wilson,  the  servant  of  Jesus  the  Messiah. 
What  you  wrote  in  answer  to  me  I  have  seen.  I  could  object  to 
everything  brought  forward  by  you,  but  it  would  take  up  time,  be  of 
no  use,  and  cause  you  much  pain.  I  shall  therefore  shortly  reply. 

"  1st.  As  to  your  proofs  against  polygamy  from  the  case  of  Adam 
and  Huwa,  and  there  not  being  a  greater  number  of  women  than  men 
in  the  world,  etc.,  etc.,  it  appears  to  me  that  you  have  considered 
polygamy  to  be  actually  necessary  to,  and  incumbent  on,  the  being 
a  Moosulman  !  But  this,  I  state,  is  not  the  fact — it  is  not  necessary, 
but  allowed.  If  a  man  find  that  one  wife  is  not  enough  for  him,  and 
he  is  able  to  support  and  take  care  of  others,  he  may,  if  he  sees  fit, 
take  another,  and  so  on  until  he  has  four,  by  the  '  Nikah  Daimee,'  and 
by  purchase,  '  Muttah,'  as  many  as  he  likes.  I  hold,  therefore,  that  your 
argument  falls  to  the  ground.  But  we  will  pass  from  this  topic.  If 
what  you  have  said  is  the  fact,  it  comes  to  this,  that  in  every  instance 
polygamy  must  be  shameful  and  base,  and  from  the  time  of  Adam  to 
the  present  time  it  must  surely  have  been  lawful.  But  I  have  seen 
that  in  your  books  it  is  written  that  some  of  the  most  celebrated 
ancestors  of  the  Lord  Jesus  (Huzrut)  were  polygamists.  Abraham,  the 
friend  of  God,  besides  his  wife  Sarah,  the  mother  of  Jacob,  took,  by 
the  advice  of  Sarah,  Hagar  ;  and  Jacob  married  Rachel  and  Leah, 
daughters  of  Laban,  his  maternal  uncle,  and  by  the  wish  of  both  these 
wives  took  their  servants  Bilha  and  Zilfa,  and  had  children  by  all 
four.  We  may  therefore  say  that  polygamy  is  not  in  its  nature  sinful, 
and  depends  on  expediency,  and  the  wish  of  the  just  man.  Since 
polygamy  was  lawful  among  men  before  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ,  why 
is  it  not  to  be  thought  lawful  and  allowable  among  Muhammadans  ? 
Regarding  Huzrut  Muhammad  taking  twelve  wives  to  himself,  and 
giving  only  four  to  his  disciples,  although  he  did  so  he  did  not  pro- 
hibit them  from  taking  more  by  '  Muttah '  and  purchase,  and  laid  no 
bounds  on  them  in  this  way.  Nor  is  it  necessary  that  a  prophet  and 


1833.]  A  MUHAMMAD  AN'S  DEFENCE  OF  POLYGAMY.  117 

his  followers  should  equally  act  or  be  subject  to  the  same  obligations. 
What  matters  it  that  there  should  be  a  difference  in  acts  like  these  ? 
Huzrut  Isa  told  his  disciples  to  marry,  but  never  himself  married. 
He  was  like  them  in  all  things  else  concerning  the  law  and  the  duties 
of  life.  And  thus  it  was  that  Muhammad  told  his  people  in  twenty- 
four  hours  to  pray  seventeen  times,  but  himself  prayed  fifty-one  times. 

"  Regarding  divorce,  the  propriety  of  which  you  declare  to  be  most 
difficult  of  proof,  and  that  the  separation  of  mother  and  children  takes 
place  from  it,  and  that  wives,  if  they  fear  that  for  a  small  fault  they 
shall  be  divorced,  will  on  the  day  of  separation  take  their  husband's 
property,  it  is  easy  to  answer  this.  That  it  was  lawful  under  the 
Mosaic  law,  appears  from  what  Huzrut  Isa  says  in  the  19th  chapter  of 
Matthew,  '  On  account  of  the  hardness  of  your  hearts,  Moses  allowed 
you  to  divorce  your  wife.'  If  therefore  Moses,  for  the  hardness  of  the 
hearts  of  the  Jews,  allowed  the  practice  of  divorce,  what  harm  was 
there  in  Muhammad  allowing  the  same  to  his  followers,  and  for^some 
one  reason  which  he  himself  was  aware  of  ?  But  the  quarrels  and  dis- 
sensions you  mention  are  not  necessary,  as  divorce  is  also  not  neces- 
sary. And  divorce  is  never  used  until  there  is  no  other  resource,  and 
this  also  is  only  allowed,  not  commanded  ;  and  no  respectable  person 
will  ever  divorce  the  mother  of  his  own  children.  And  if  a  bad  wife 
is  divorced,  her  part  of  the  property  is  always  given  her.  And  if  a 
wife  knows  that  on  account  of  bad  conduct  she  may  be  divorced,  it 
will  prevent  her  from  such  a  course. 

"  I  am  a  seeker  of  the  right  road,  and  having  discovered  that  road, 
I  hold  it  necessary  for  me  to  walk  in  it  ;  and  if  I  prove  that  my  sect 
is  holding  an  untruth,  after  all  my  exertions,  I  shall  only  discover  the 
falsity  of  it  without  getting  to  myself  any  good.  The  Muhammadan 
religion,  which  I  have  chosen,  is  the  religion  of  the  twelve  Imaums, 
and  I  have  not  entered  it  merely  in  imitation  of  my  ancestors  (because 
my  parents  were  Muhammadans),  nor  from  prejudice  on  account  of  my 
tribe  and  family,  but  because,  after  much  search  and  examination,  and 
after  inquiries  into  all  other  kinds  of  religions,  and  finding  more  proofs, 
and  full  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the  Muhammadan  doctrines,  I 
became  a  follower  of  that  sect.  Now  that  you  have  commenced  to 
teach  men  the  right  road,  you  should  fully  explain  and  prove  the 
truths  of  your  own  belief,  that  the  seekers  of  truth,  if  enfeebled  by 
your  arguments,  should  adopt  your  views  and  become  obedient  to 
your  doctrines. 

"  But  supposing,  what  is  impossible,  that  you  could  prove  the 
falsity  of  the  Muhammadan  religion,  that  could  never  prove  the  truth 


118  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1833. 

of  the  Christian  religion.  Supposing  that  you  should  say,  from  the 
falsity  of  the  Muhammadan  religion  the  truth  of  the  Christian  faith 
must  necessarily  follow,  because  Muhammad  himself  confessed  Christ 
to  be  a  prophet,  and  thus  there  are  consenting  or  concurring  evidences 
of  the  mission  of  Jesus  Christ,  I  answer,  that  Muhammad  only  con- 
fessed that  Christ  to  be  a  prophet,  who  said  to  the  children  of  Israel 
that  after  him  another  prophet  would  arise  called  Ahmud.  If,  there- 
fore, this  is  the  very  Christ  whom  the  Christians  worship,  they  must 
confess  the  Muhammadan  faith  to  be  true  ;  but  if  they  worship  another 
than  that  Christ  who  thus  prophesied  of  Muhammad,  the  Muhamma- 
dans  acknowledge  no  other  than  him,  and  I  affirm  that  the  prophetic 
mission  of  Christ  has  not  the  concurring  evidences  that  I  supposed  you 
assumed." 

The  reply  to  this  communication  was  as  follows  : — "  To  Haji 
Muhammad  Hashim,  John  Wilson  presents  respectful  salutations. 

"  I  have  carefully  perused  your  second  letter  in  defence  of  Muham- 
mad, but  I  must  frankly  acknowledge  that  it  is  my  decided  opinion 
that  you  have  completely  failed  to  answer  my  statement  of  reasons 
against  polygamy.  In  reply  to  that  which  respected  the  fact  that  God 
gave  only  one  wife  to  Adam,  and  that  there  are  not  more  women  than 
men  in  the  world,  you  allege  that  I  supposed  that  it  was  required  by 
the  Muhammadan  law  that  every  man  should  have  four  wives.  Grant- 
ing that  I  had  made  this  mistake,  you  have  not  in  the  slightest  degree 
overturned  my  argument.  I  assure  you  that  I  was  not  ignorant  of  the 
state  of  your  law  on  the  subject,  and  that  I  am  of  opinion  that  the 
countenance  which  it  grants  is  a  great  evil.  You  should  have  showed 
wherein  my  six  reasons  were  erroneous.  I  would  have  taken  no 
offence  at  your  reasoning,  however  acute  and  forcible  it  might  have 
been.  It  is  much  better  for  a  person  to  reason,  than  merely  to  say 
that  he  can  reason. 

"  Abraham,  and  Solomon,  and  other  individuals  mentioned  in  the 
Old  Testament,  practised  polygamy,  but  I  ask  you  if  God  approved  of 
their  doing  so,  and  gave  them  his  divine  countenance  ;  and  if  they 
consulted  their  best  interests  by  the  course  which  they  pursued.  I  find 
no  passage  in  the  Bible  approving  of  polygamy.  On  the  contrary,  I 
find  Moses  in  his  5th  book,  17th  chapter,  and  17th  verse,  laying  down 
a  law  even  for  the  King  of  Israel,  that  '  he  should  not  multiply  wives 
to  himself,  that  his  heart  turn  not  away  ; '  and  I  find  it  said  respecting 
Solomon,  in  the  llth  chapter  of  the  first  book  of  Kings,  'that  his 
wives  turned  away  his  heart  after  other  gods  r^and  his  heart  was  not 
perfect  with  the  Lord  his  God/  You  see,  then,  that  the  Scriptures  of 
the  Jews  and  Christians  differ  from  the  Koran  of  Muhammad. 


1833.]  MUHAMMAD'S  POLYGAMOUS  INTERCOURSE.  119 

"  You  have  not  satisfactorily  explained  why  Muhammad  took  to 
himself  more  wives  than  he  allowed  to  his  disciples.  It  is  more  suitable 
to  the  character  of  a  teacher  to  exceed  his  disciples  in  the  actual 
service  of  God  than  to  fall  short  of  them  ;  but  it  is  more  suitable  that 
he  should  fall  short  of  them  than  exceed  them  in  worldly  enjoyment. 
Do  not  you  admit  that  this  is  the  case  ?  I  require  an  answer. 

"I  have  little  to  say  respecting  your  remarks  on  divorce.  You 
seem  not  to  indicate  that  kind  of  divorce  of  which  you  spoke  in  your 
first  letter,  as  '  a  quick  expedient  for  settling  disputes.'  Christ  Jesus 
allows  divorce  in  the  case  of  fornication  ;  and  although  Moses  allowed 
the  Jews,  on  account  of  the  hardness  of  their  hearts,  to  practise  it  in 
some  other  cases,  Muhammad,  who  pretended  that  he  was  improving 
upon  Moses  and  upon  Christ,  was  required,  by  consistency,  to  confirm 
or  improve  what  Christ  established.  Instead  of  doing  this,  how- 
ever, he  brings  matters  back  to  their  old  state,  when  the  Jews  were 
unwilling  to  submit  to  a  right  law.  In  acting  thus  he  clearly  showed 
that  his  pretensions  were  without  ground.  I  am  most  happy  to  find 
that  you  are  of  opinion  that  no  respectable  person  will  divorce  the 
mother  of  his  children  without  a  sufficient  reason  :  and  I  shall  be 
happy  to  learn  that  all  the  Persians,  and  Arabians,  and  others,  are 
resolved  to  treat  their  wives  with  increased  kindness.  They  will  in 
this  way  essentially  promote  their  own  happiness,  the  right  education 
of  their  children,  and  the  welfare  of  society  in  general. 

"  Connected  with  the  subject  on  which  I  have  made  these  remarks, 
there  are  other  three  to  which  I  invite  your  attention.  The  first 
respects  the  laws  which  Muhammad  laid  down  regarding  his  own 
wives.  He  said  that  it  was  the  will  of  God  that  his  followers  should 
treat  all  their  wives  with  the  same  respect ;  but,  in  the  thirty-third 
chapter  of  the  Koran,  he  claims  the  right  of  treating  his  wives  as  he 
should  see  fit.  He  forbids  his  disciples  from  marrying  their  near 
relatives  ;  but  he  throws  no  restraint  upon  himself,  as  you  will  perceive 
from  the  chapter  to  which  I  have  referred.  He  allowed  none  of  his 
followers  to  have  that  intercourse  with  his  wives  which  he  claimed  for 
himself  with  regard  to  those  of  others.  He  also  allowed  all  widows  to 
marry  a  second  time  except  his  own.  On  this  subject  you  do  not  need 
information  ;  you  only  require  to  reflect. 

"  The  second  circumstance  which  I  have  in  view  is  the  dishonour- 
able and  criminal  manner  in  which  Muhammad  procured  some  of  his 
wives.  I  call  on  you  to  consider  his  conduct  with  regard  to  Zainab  the 
wife  of  Zaid.  He  falls  in  love  with  her,  prevails  on  her  husband  to 
put  her  away,  and  impiously  pretends  that  he  had  the  authority  of  God 


120  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1833. 

for  marrying  her.  I  call  on  you  to  examine  his  conduct  with  regard  to 
Mary,  the  Egyptian  girl.  In  both  these  cases  he  grievously  sinned. 
Kooskuna  Abdoolah,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  me,  and  published  by  the 
editor  of  the  Hurkaru  and  Wurtuman  says  that  his  conduct  was  no 
worse  than  that  of  David  King  of  Israel.  I  say  that  it  was  much  worse. 
David  sinned,  it  is  true  :  but  he  repented  bitterly.  The  Bible  con- 
demns the  conduct  of  David  ;  and  nothing  can  be  said  against  its  truth 
on  this  account.  The  Koran  approves  of  the  evil  conduct  of  Muham- 
mad ;  and  it  is  therefore  evident  that  this  Koran  came  not  from  God, 
who  is  infinitely  holy,  and  who  cannot  look  upon  sin  without  hatred 
and  detestation. 

"  The  third  point  to  which  I  refer  you  is  the  promise  which 
Muhammad  gave  to  his  followers  of  marriage  in  heaven.  As  I  know 
that  you  are  possessed  of  a  good  understanding,  I  shall  merely  on  this 
subject  quote  a  couplet  from  a  Persian  poet 

"  You  profess  to  be  a  seeker  of  the  right  road,  and  that  you  have 
embraced  Muhammadanism  after  much  inquiry.  You  also  declare  that, 
if  you  discover  the  falsity  of  it,  you  will  get  no  good.  I  do  not  see 
what  are  the  reasons  which  warrant  you  to  come  to  this  conclusion. 
If  you  actually  discover  that  the  Koran  does  not  contain  the  religion 
of  God,  you  will  perhaps,  by  the  aid  of  God,  seek  more  diligently  for 
its  discovery  in  some  other  quarter.  I  give  you  credit  for  making 
inquiry  in  your  youth,  particularly  as  the  Koran  denounces  all  persons 
who  act  as  you  have  done,  and  I  would  respectfully,  but  very  earnestly, 
entreat  you  to  re-examine  minutely  the  claims  of  Muhammad.  The 
topics  to  which  I  have  briefly  directed  your  attention  will  furnish  you 
with  some  ground  of  decision  ;  and  those  which  I  now  bring  before 
your  notice  may  perhaps  conduce  to  the  same  object. 

"  It  must  be  admitted  by  every  intelligent  person  that,  if  God  see 
fit  to  make  a  revelation  of  his  will  to  men,  the  book  containing  that 
revelation  must  be  true  in  all  its  statements,  free  from  contradictions  of 
principle,  and  holy  in  its  tendency.  Let  the  Koran  be  examined  by 
this  simple  test  and  I  am  certain  that  it  must  be  renounced.  You 
are  acquainted  with  its  contents,  and  I  ask  you  to  consider  if  they  are 
all  of  that  kind  which  can  be  approved.  As  examples  of  the  errors  in 
matters  of  well-known  facts,  I  refer  you  to  what  is  said  respecting  the 
hills  and  mountains  of  the  earth,  the  setting  of  the  sun,  and  the  char- 
acter of  Alexander  the  Great.  In  the  chapter  of  Lockman,  it  is  thus 
written  :  '  And  he  hath  thrown  on  the  earth  mountains  firmly  rooted, 
lest  it  should  move  with  you.'  In  the  chapter  of  the  Kav,  it  is  thus 
written  :  '  And  he  followed  his  way  till  he  came  to  the  place  where  the 


1833.]  THE  CONTRADICTIONS  AND  ERRORS  OF  THE  KORAN.   121 

sun  setteth,  and  he  found  it  to  set  in  a  spring  of  black  mud  ;  and  he 
found  near  the  same  a  certain  people/  In  the  same  chapter  it  is  said 
that  Alexander  believed  in  God,  while  the  historians  of  his  own  country 
clearly  show  that  he  lived  and  died  a  heathen.  The  contradictions  in 
principle  are  exceedingly  numerous.  These  cannot  be  explained,  as  the 
Moosulman  doctors  wish,  on  the  supposition  that  the  prophet  chose  to 
repeat  at  one  time  what  he  had  declared  at  another,  for  in  the  chapter 
of  women  it  is  thus  written  : — '  Do  they  not  attentively  consider  the 
Koran  ?  If  it  had  been  from  any  besides  God,  they  would  certainly 
have  found  therein  many  contradictions.'  According  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Koran  itself,  then,  its  contradictions  are  proofs  that  it  did  not  come 
from  God.  Muhammad  indirectly,  and  unwillingly,  gives  testimony 
against  himself.  The  Koran  is  not  holy  in  its  tendency,  although 
many  of  its  precepts,  borrowed  from  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scrip- 
tures, are  correct.  Instead  of  striving  to  restrain  sin,  and  utterly 
eradicate  it,  Muhammad  says,  '  God  is  minded  to  make  his  religion 
light  unto  you,  for  man  was  created  weak.'  Instead  of  supporting  the 
authority,  and  manifesting  the  holiness  of  God,  your  prophet  teaches 
that  men  have  the  power  of  saving  themselves  by  their  own  works  ; 
or  of  procuring  pardon  by  their  own  repentance.  Do  not  deceive  your- 
self, and  ruin  yourself,  by  resting  on  his  scheme  of  salvation.  Good 
works  are  at  all  times  required  ;  and,,  however  good  they  may  be,  they 
cannot  be  better  than  God  commands.  They  cannot  then  stand  in  the 
place  of  the  sins  which  have  been  already  committed.  Men,  even  in 
their  best  estate,  sin  daily  in  thought,  in  word,  and  in  action.  Their  re- 
pentance cannot  procure  pardon,  for  were  God  to  give  to  men  the 
assurance  that  it  would  prevail,  his  kingdom  would  be  destroyed.  Men 
would  begin  to  say  that  we  may  sin  without  fear,  for  we  can  escape 
when  we  please  ;  we  have  only  to  repent.  In  no  earthly  government 
of  nations  does  repentance  procure  pardon.  How  will  it  succeed  with 
God  who  is  the  King  of  all  worlds  ?  That  atonement  which  was  made 
by  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  sure  ground  of  hope. 

"  You  say  that  Christ  declared  that  a  prophet  named  Ahmud  would 
come  unto  the  world.  I  deny  that  he  did  ;  and  I  ask  you  to  show  me 
the  writing  on  which  you  ground  your  statement.  Muhammad,  I 
know,  said  that  he  was  the  great  prophet  spoken  of  in  the  Jewish 
Scriptures.  But  his  own  admission  proves  that  he  was  not  what  he 
represented  himself.  He  uniformly  speaks  of  Christ  as  the  Messiah. 
Now  every  Jew  will  tell  you  that  the  Messiah  is  the  great  prophet  and 
Redeemer,  whom  they  and  their  fathers  have  expected. 

"  You  inform  me  that  I  should  explain  and  prove  the  truths  of  my 


122  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1833. 

own  belief.  This  is  my  daily  employment.  When  I  have  received 
your  answer  to  this  letter,  which  is  as  long  as  can  be  admitted  at  once 
into  the  Sumachar,  I  shall  (D.V.)  present  you  with  an  explanation  and 
proof  of  what  is  required.  I  am  really  astonished  to  see  a  person  of 
your  abilities  devoted  to  error.  Wishing  you  much  prosperity,  I  am 
your  humble  Servant, 

"J.  WILSON." 

In  the  elaborate  Reply  itself,  Mr.  Wilson  does  not  allude 
to  the  almost  unmentionable  "  Mostahil '  or  temporary  hus- 
band, so  essential  a  part  of  the  Muhammadan  system  of  divorce, 
as  authoritatively  laid  down  in  the  "  Fatawa-i-Alamgiri."  * 
Nor  did  the  attack  of  the  Hadjee  lead  him  to  the  considera- 
tion of  a  subject  which  recent  treaties  have  made  prominent, 
the  relation  of  the  sexual  side  of  the  Koran  to  the  slave-trade 
and  slavery.  To  the  practical  efforts  in  that  direction  he 
was  soon  to  be  called.  But  he  does  not  spare  the  Hadjee  in 
his  sixth  chapter,  "  On  the  mode  in  which  Muhammad  procured 
and  treated  his  wives,"  a  subject  on  which  even  Gibbon  is 
severe.  The  law  of  polygamous  marriage  and  treble  divorce  has 
never  been  interfered  with  by  the  British  Government  among 
the  forty  millions  of  its  Mussulman  subjects  in  India ;  while 
not  a  few  Hindoo  criminal  practices,  like  widow-burning, 
child-murder,  hook-swinging,  and  human  sacrifice,  all  in  the 
name  of  religion,  have  been  ruthlessly  stopped.  The  result  is 
such  a  horrible  state  of  society  among  the  Mussulmans  of 
eastern  Bengal,  as  was  revealed  in  an  official  inquiry  in  1873, 
and  which  still  goes  on  corrupting,  under  the  aegis  of  the 
Koran  and  its  expounders.  Mr.  Wilson  was  able  to  write  of 
this  controversy,  as  of  those  which  preceded  it,  that  it  had 
shaken  the  faith  of  some  Muhammadans  in  different  parts  of 
the  country.  The  Parsee  editor  of  the  newspaper  in  which 
it  was  at  first  conducted,  summed  it  up  in  the  brief  de- 

1  See  Baillie's  translation,  and  the  exposure  of  the  abomination  by  a  Hindoo, 
Professor  Shama  Churun  Sircar,  in  the  Tagore  Law  Lectures  for  1873 
(Calcutta). 


1833.]  FIRST  CONVERTS  FROM  MUHAMMADANISM.  123 

claration,  "All  the  world  know  that  Islamism  has  been 
either  propagated  by  the  sword,  or  embraced  on  account 
of  its  licentiousness."  From  far  Cochin,  and  the  south,  a 
convert  came  convinced  by  the  Reply,  which  was  reprinted 
in  other  parts  of  India.  In  October  1833  Mr.  Wilson 
baptized  the  first  Muhammadan  of  Bombay  who  had  been 
received  into  the  Christian  Church.  He  was  a  fakeer,  or 
mendicant  devotee,  whose  secession  from  Islam  infuriated  his 
intolerant  brethren.  He  was  followed  by  an  inquirer,  a  very 
learned  Moolla,  young  and  master  of  several  tongues,  who 
during  the  controversy  was  the  stoutest  opposer  of  Christ, 
but  humbly  solicited  baptism  as  now  convinced  of  the  truth 
of  Christianity. 

It  was  with  a  peculiar  interest  that  Mr.  Wilson  directed 
his  attention  to  the  Jews  of  western  India  from  the  very 
beginning  of  his  studies  in  the  Konkan.  Tor  it  was  on  that 
low  coast,  and  in  the  country  stretching  upwards  to  the  high 
road  to  Poona  that,  according  to  their  own  tradition,  their 
ancestors,  seven  men  and  seven  women,  found  an  asylum,  after 
shipwreck,  sixteen  centuries  before.  The  little  colony  increased 
under  the  protection  of  the  Abyssinian  Chief  who  had  settled 
there,  and  they  came  to  be  recognised  as  another  variety  of 
the  Muhammadans.  Destitute  of  all  historical  evidence,  even 
of  their  own  Law,  the  Beni-Israel,or  sons  of  Israel  as  they  called 
themselves,  clung  all  the  more  tenaciously,  generation  after 
generation,  to  their  paternal  customs.  On  the  mainland  they 
became  industrious  agriculturists  and  oil-sellers.  In  the 
new  settlement  of  Bombay  they  found  work  to  do  as  artizans, 
and  even  shopkeepers  and  writers.  Not  a  few  of  them  are 
Sepoys  in  the  Bombay  army,  as  many  Christians  are  in  the 
Madras  army.  They  differ  from  the  black  Jews  of  Cochin, 
further  south,  who  have  sprung  of  the  earliest  emigrants  from 
Arabia  and  Indian  proselytes.  Nor  have  they  any  connection 
with  the  so-called  white  Jews  of  the  same  place,  whose 


124  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1833. 

arrival  in  India  dates  no  farther  back  probably  than  the 
earliest  of  those  expulsions  from  Spain,  which,  in  the  same 
way,  afterwards  sent  Lord  Beaconsfield's  ancestors  to  Venice. 
The  Beni-Israel,  repelling  the  name  of  Yehudi  as  a  reproach, 
were  probably  older  than  both,  for  the  Cochin  Jews  say  that 
they  found  them  on  their  arrival  at  Eajapoora,  in  the  Konkan. 
In  two  careful  and  learned  papers,  written  for  the  Bombay 
Branch  of  the  Koyal  Asiatic  Society,  Mr.  Wilson  traced  them 
to  Yemen  or  Arabia  Felix,  the  Jews  of  which  they  resemble, 
and  with  whom  they  hold  intercourse.  One  of  the  Eothschild 
family,  Mr.  Samuel,  and  Mr.  "Wilson  himself  afterwards, 
found  the  origin  of  the  Aden  Jews  in  the  remnant  of  the 
captivity  who  fled  into  Egypt,  where,  as  Jeremiah  had  warned 
them,  many  were  sent  captive  to  Arabia,  and  where  they  led 
the  Himyarite  King  of  Yemen,  Toba,  to  embrace  their  faith. 
The  Yemen  colony  was  reinforced  after  the  dispersion,  on 
the  fall  of  Jerusalem ;  and  again  on  the  defeat  of  Zenobia ; 
till  Sana,  the  capital  of  Yemen,  became  a  new  bulwark  of 
Judaism  against  the  Christians  of  Ethiopia  on  the  west  and 
the  Zoroastrians  of  Persia  on  the  east.  The  Beni-Israel  were 
very  near  Mr.  Wilson's  heart.  For  them  he  prepared  his 
first  grammar  of  Hebrew  and  Marathee.  Long  after  he 
ceased  to  receive  support  for  them  from  the  home  churches 
he  made  it  his  special  care  to  raise  funds  on  the  spot.  The 
transfer  of  the  mission  to  the  General  Assembly  he  welcomed, 
among  other  reasons,  because  of  the  impetus  it  gave  to  this 
department.  In  1826  a  converted  Cochin  Jew,  Mr.  Sargon, 
had  worked  among  them,  and  the  American  Missionaries  also 
had  from  the  first  cared  for  them.  Of  the  1300  children  who 
attended  Mr.  Wilson's  various  schools  in  1836,  some  250  were 
Beni-Israel,  and  of  these  one  third  were  girls.1 

At  the  end  of  1833  Bombay  was  visited  by  Joseph  Wolff, 
the  erratic  Jew  of  Prague,  who  delighted  to  proclaim  himself 

1  Appeal  for  the  Christian  Education  of  the  Beni-Israel  of  Bombay. 


1833.]  THE  BENI-ISRAEL  AND  JOSEPH  WOLFF.  125 

the  Protestant  Xavier,  and  lamented  that  he  had  not  alto- 
gether followed  that  missionary  in  the  matter  of  celibacy, 
such  was  the  sorrow  that  their  separation  by  his  frequent 
wanderings  had  brought  on  Lady  Georgiana  and  himself.  He 
had  the  year  before  sent  Mr.  Wilson  this  communication  : — 

"CABOOL,  Wth  May  1832. — The  bearers  of  these  lines  are  the 
Armenian  Christians  of  Cabool,  whose  ancestors  were  brought  to  Cabool 
from  Meshed  by  Ahmed  Shah  ;  as  they  had  no  longer  any  means  of 
support  at  Cabool  they  were  constrained  to  emigrate  from  here  with 
their  wives  and  children,  and  intend  now  to  settle  themselves  at 
Jerusalem  and  round  Mount  Ararat.  As  they  are  very  poor  indeed 
I  cannot  but  recommend  them  to  my  English  friends  as  worthy  objects 
of  their  pity  and  compassion  for  the  sake  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
will  come  again  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  in  the  year  1847  to  establish 
his  throne  and  citadel  in  the  capital  of  my  Jewish  ancestors  in  the  city 
of  Jerusalem — and  at  that  time  there  shall  be  neither  Armenian  nor 
Englishman,  but  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus  crucified,  the  King  of  Kings 
and  Lord  of  Lords. — JOSEPH  WOLFF,  Apostle  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for 
Palestine,  Persia,  Bokhara,  and  Balkh." 

After  emerging  from  Central  Asia  in  a  condition  more 
nearly  resembling  that  of  a  nude  dervish  than  an  Anglican 
clergyman,  Wolff  had  attempted  to  convert  Eunjeet  Singh  at 
Lahore,  had  himself  been  civilised  for  the  time  at  Simla  by 
Lord  William  Bentinck  and  his  noble  wife,  and  had  made  his 
way  round  and  across  India  by  Madras  and  Goa  to  the 
western  capital.  In  the  amusing  and  by  no  means  uninstruct- 
ive  Travels  and  Adventures,  which,  in  1861,  was  dedicated 
"by  his  friend  and  admirer"  to  the  Eight.  Hon.  Benjamin 
Disraeli,  we  have  these  glimpses  of  Bombay  society,  and  of 
Mr.  Wilson,  with  whom  he  afterwards  frequently  corresponded 
on  mission-work  for  the  Jews  and  the  eastern  Christians. 
"  Wolff  arrived  in  Bombay  on  the  29th  November,  and  was 
received  by  all  classes  of  denominations  of  Christians  there 
with  true  cordiality  and  love.  He  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  James 
Farish,  who  was  several  times  Deputy-Governor  of  Bombay. 


126  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1833. 

Lord  Clare,  the  Governor,  called,  and  heard  a  lecture  which 
was  delivered  before  a  large  audience.  Wolff  also  lectured  in 
Parish's  house  as  well  as  in  the  Town  Hall  of  Bombay,  when 
English,  Parsees,  Armenians,  Mussulmans,  Portuguese,  and 
Hindoos  were  present.  One  of  the  Parsees  announced  a 
lecture  on  the  principles  of  the  Parsees,  in  which  he  tried  to 
adopt  the  style  and  actions  of  Joseph  Wolff,  but  he  was 
dreadfully  cut  up  in  the  papers.  .  .  .  Wolff  had  a  public 
discussion  with  the  Muhammadans  at  Bombay,  when  the  most 
distinguished  members  of  the  British  Government  were  pre- 
sent, both  of  the  military  and  civil  departments,  including 
Parish,  Eobert  Money,  and  the  missionaries  Wilson  and 
Nesbit,  and  also  Parsees."  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Stevenson 
introduced  him  to  all  departments  of  their  mission-work,  but 
he  was  especially  interested  in  the  Beni-Israel,  some  of  whom 
he  had  first  seen  at  Poona.  He  writes  of  "those  learned, 
excellent,  eloquent,  devoted,  and  zealous  missionaries  of  the 
Scotch  Kirk,"  and  continues, — "Wolff  went  also  with  Mr. 
Wilson  to  see'  one  of  the  celebrated  Yoghees,  who  was  lying 
in  the  sun  in  the  street,  the  nails  of  whose  hands  were  grown 
into  his  cheek,  and  a  bird's  nest  upon  his  head.  Wolff  asked 
him,  How  can  one  obtain  the  knowledge  of  God  ?'  He  replied, 
'  Do  not  ask  me  questions ;  you  may  look  at  me,  for  I  am 
God!'  Wolff  indignantly  said  to  him,  'You  will  go  to  hell 
if  you  speak  in  such  a  way.' "  The  subtle  pantheism  of  the 
ascetic  absorbed  into  Vishnoo  was  beyond  the  Judseo-Chris- 
tian  dervish.1  He  left  soon  after  for  Yemen  and  Abyssinia, 
whence  we  shall  hear  from  him  again. 

1  Lady  "William  Bentinck  had  a  hard  fight  to  assure  the  Governor-General's 
court  that  Wolff  was  not  mad.  "  I  have  succeeded,"  she  told  him,  "  in  con- 
vincing all  who  have  seen  and  heard  you  that  you  are  not  cracked,  but  I  have 
not  convinced  them  that  you  are  not  an  enthusiast."  "Wolff  replied,  "My 
dear  Lady  William,  I  hope  that  I  am  an  enthusiast,  or,  as  the  Persian  Soofees 
say,  that  I  am  drunk  with  the  love  of  God.  Columbus  would  never  have 
discovered  America  without  enthusiasm."  And  so  "Wolff  afterwards  revealed 
the  true  fate  of  Conolly  and  Stoddart. 


1833.]       MR.  GROVES,  DR.  KITTO,  AND  MR.  F.  W.  NEWMAN.       127 

A  wandering  missionary  of  like  zeal  but  more  intensity 
of  spirit  visited  Bombay  in  the  same  year,  Mr.  Anthony 
Groves  of  Exeter,  first  and  most  catholic  of  those  who  call 
themselves  "The  Brethren."  Having  parted  with  all  he 
possessed,  according  to  his  rendering  of  Christ's  precept — 
"  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  on  earth,"  as  expounded 
in  a  pamphlet  on  Christian  Devotedness,  he  proceeded  by  St. 
Petersburg  to  Bagdad  in  1831,  and  there  commenced  his 
mission.  He  had  as  his  secretary,  and  the  tutor  of  his 
children,  the  deaf  lad  who  afterwards  became  remarkable  as 
Dr.  Kitto.  Plague,  inundation,  and  famine,  broke  up  the 
schools  in  which  he  gave  a  Christian  education  to  eighty 
children  under  five  masters.  His  own  wife  and  children  fell 
victims,  and  in  1833  he  visited  India  to  learn  lithographic 
printing,  and  acquaint  himself  with  the  experience  of  men 
like  Duff  and  Wilson.  But  his  speculative  views  were  too 
far  advanced  for  that.  He  was  a  dervish  of  a  different  type 
from  the  buoyant  Wolff,  but  still  a  dervish.  He  held  that,  as 
the  gospel  was  to  be  preached  for  a  witness  by  missionaries 
supported  by  the  free-will  offerings  of  Christendom,  before  the 
end  come,  no  mission  should  continue  in  the  same  place  for 
more  than  five  years.  After  a  visit  to  England  he  returned 
with  a  considerable  reinforcement  of  coadjutors  in  1836.  On 
both  occasions  Mr.  Wilson  showed  him  that  hospitality  and 
did  him  that  social  service,  which  were  already  beginning  to 
be  drawn  upon  by  all  visitors  who  could  plead  any  interest  of 
any  kind  in  the  East  and  its  peoples. 

Another  type  of  missionary  policy  was  supplied  by  Mr. 
Francis  William  Newman,  brother  of  the  greater  John  Henry 
Newman,  and  son  of  a  well-known  banker.  After  giving 
brilliant  promise,  since  well  redeemed,  as  Eellow  of  Balliol 
up  to  1830,  Mr.  W.  F.  Newman  drifted  away  from  the  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles  into  the  views  of  Mr.  Groves,  whose  pamphlet 
attracted  him  also  to  Bagdad.  There  he  hoped  to  draw  the 


128  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1833. 

Muhammadans  to  the  Arian  form,  at  least,  of  Christianity  by 
such  purely  moral  evidence  of  its  superiority  as  the  lives  of 
really  disinterested  Englishmen  might  supply.  He  dreamed 
of  a  colony  "so  animated  by  faith,  primitive  love,  and 
disinterestedness,  that  the  collective  moral  influence  of  all 
might  interpret  and  enforce  the  words  of  the  few  who 
preached."  He  looked  for  success  "where  the  natives  had 
gained  experience  in  the  characters  of  the  Christian  family 
around  them."  This  was  precisely  what  Wilson,  of  all 
missionaries  who  have  ever  worked  in  the  East,  did  in 
Bombay ;  but  he  succeeded  where  Mr.  F.  W.  Newman  soon 
failed,  because  he  never  ceased  to  show  that  a  disinterested 
life  and  the  Christian  family  spring  directly  out  of  those 
"mystical  doctrines  of  Christianity"  which  the  author  of 
that  sadly  suggestive  book  the  Phases  of  Faith,1  began  by 
postponing.  Wolff,  Groves,  and  F.  W.  Newman  were  all  on 
one  right  track,  the  superiority  of  what  is  called  the  internal 
evidences,  of  arguments  addressed  to  the  moral  and  spiritual 
faculties  of  heathen  and  Muhammadan.  So  had  Wilson 
begun,  and  so  did  he  continue  all  through  his  career,  from 
the  letter  quoted  at  page  72,  to  his  testimony,  along  with 
that  of  Bishop  French  of  Lahore,  regarding  the  importance  of 
witness-bearing,  at  the  Allahabad  Conference  in  1873.  But 
Wilson  did  not  make  the  mistake  of  cutting  the  stream  off 
below  the  fountain-head,  and  hence  the  permanent  and 
developing  fruitfulness  of  his  work  to  all  time  and  among  all 
creeds  and  classes.  Francis  Newman  returned  to  England  in 
two  years,  himself  partly  affected  by  a  Muhammadan  carpenter 
of  Aleppo,  to  find  the  Tractarian  movement  beginning,  and 
his  brother  and  his  whole  family  alienated  from  him.  He 
would  not  return  to  the  East;  considering  the  idea  of  a  Chris- 

1  Compare  the  "  second  period"  of  that  book,  entitled  Strivings  after  a 
'more  Primitive  Christianity,  with  the  greater  Apologia  of  his  brother,  John 
Henry  Newman. 


1835.]  ROBERT  C.  MONEY SIR  JOHN  MALCOLM.  129 

tian  Church  propagating  Christianity  while  divided  against 
itself  to  be  ridiculous.  So  Ecclesiasticism  drove  him  out,  he 
thinks,  and  we  may  admit  this  much,  that  Protestant  Evan- 
gelicalism lost  not  a  little  in  the  brothers  Newman,  abroad 
and  at  home,  whoever  was  to  blame.  The  unity  which 
each  has  to  this  day  sought  they  would  have  found,  as  John 
Wilson  did,  in  catholic  work  for  the  Master,  pursued  in  loving 
unity  with  missionaries  of  all  sects  in  India.  The  mission  in 
Bagdad  and  Persia,  abandoned  by  Groves  and  Newman,  he 
in  due  time  did  his  best  to  revive  with  the  only  means  at 
his  disposal. 

In  1835  the  society  which  Mr.  Wilson  had  gradually 
gathered  around  him  lost  its  greatest  lay  ornament  in  the 
death  of  Mr.  Eobert  C.  Money,  secretary  to  the  Government. 
The  son  of  Wilberforce's  friend,  he  had  ever  shown  in  Bombay 
all  the  excellencies  of  "  the  Clapham  sect,"  as  a  devoted 
member  of  the  Church  of  England.  Under  the  Charter  of 
1833  Archdeacon  Carr  had  been  made  the  first  Bishop  of 
Bombay,  and  the  Church  Missionary  Society  had  received  a 
new  impetus  there.  Erom  the  first  Mr.  Money  became  the 
attached  friend  of  Mr.  Wilson,  and  co-operated  with  him  in 
every  good  work.  Men  of  all  classes,  native  as  well  as 
English,  united  to  raise  as  his  memorial  the  Church  of 
England  Institution,  or  English  College,  in  Bombay,  which 
bears  his  name.  Mr.  Wilson  was  for  some  time  engaged  in 
the  preparation  for  the  press  of  a  memoir,  and  of  the  papers 
of  one  who,  like  Mr.  Webb  and  Mr.  Law  at  the  same  time, 
and  Sir  Bartle  Frere  at  a  later  period,  reflected  lustre  on  the 
Bombay  Civil  Service. 

To  the  regret  of  all  classes  in  the  Presidency  Sir  John 
Malcolm  resigned  the  office  of  Governor  at  the  close  of  1830, 
and  with  that  ceased  those  services  to  India  and  Asia  right 
up  to  the  Caspian,  which  justified  Sir  Walter  Scott's  eulogies 
and  the  great  Duke's  friendship. 

K 


130  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

Not  the  least  valued,  certainly  not  the  least  sincere,  of  the 
addresses  presented  to  his  Excellency  who  had  come  out  to 
India  as  an  infantry  cadet  at  thirteen,  was  that  which  Mr. 
Wilson  wrote  and  signed  as  Secretary  to  the  Bombay  Mis- 
sionary Union.  At  a  time  when  the  Charter  of  1833  had 
not  removed  the  silly  opposition  of  the  East  India  Company, 
these  men,  some  of  whom  had  been  driven  from  Calcutta  and 
for  a  time  threatened  with  expulsion  from  Bombay,  thanked 
"the  Honourable  Major-General  Malcolm,  G.C.B.,  Governor 
of  Bombay,  for  the  facilities  which  he  has  granted  for  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  in  all  parts  of  the  Bombay  territories, 
for  his  favourable  exertions  for  the  abolition  of  Suttee,  and 
for  the  kind  manner  in  which  he  has  countenanced  Christian 
education."  His  reply  was  that  'of  the  purely  secular  but 
truly  tolerant  statesman.  He  begged  Mr.  Wilson  to  assure 
the  missionaries  "  that  it  is  solely  to  their  real  and  Christian 
humility,  combined,  as  I  have  ever  found  it,  with  a  spirit  of 
toleration  and  good  sense,  that  I  owe  any  power  I  have  pos- 
sessed of  aiding  them  in  their  good  and  pious  objects,  which 
.  .  .  must  merit  and  receive  the  support  of  all  who  take  an 
interest  in  the  promotion  of  knowledge,  the  advancement  of 
civilisation,  and  the  cause  of  truth."  So  had  Mountstuart 
Elphinstone  spoken  before  him.  So,  and  even  still  more 
warmly,  did  Lord  William  Bentinck  afterwards  reply  to  a 
farewell  address  from  the  Calcutta  missionaries  :  "  The  offer 
of  religion  in  the  schools  of  the  missionaries  is  without 
objection.  It  is  or  is  not  accepted.  If  it  is  not,  the  other 
seeds  of  instruction  may  take  root  and  yield  a  rich  and 
abundant  harvest  of  improvement  and  future  benefit.  I 
would  give  them,  as  an  example  in  support  of  this  advice,  the 
school  founded  exactly  on  these  principles,  lately  superintended 
by  the  estimable  Mr.  Duff.  I  would  say  to  them,  finally,  that 
they  could  not  send  to  India  too  many  labourers  in  the  vineyard 
like  those  whom  I  now  have  the  gratification  of  addressing." 


1835.]  SIR  ROBERT  GRANT.  131 

Sir  John  Malcolm  met  in  Egypt  his  successor,  Lord  Clare, 
whose  Irish  blood  he  found  inflamed  because  of  the  delay  in  the 
arrival  of  the  steamer  at  Cosseir.  The  Earl  of  Clare  was  fol- 
lowed in  1835  by  Sir  Eobert  Grant,  who  keenly  sympathised 
with  Mr.  Wilson  and  his  work  on  its  highest  side.  Lord 
Clare  had,  indeed,  specially  requested  Mr.  Stevenson  to  con- 
tinue to  give  religious  instruction  in  the  Poqna  School  at  first 
established  by  that  missionary,  after  it  had  been  transferred  to 
the  Government,  and  he  had  privately  assisted  missions.  But 
Sir  Eobert  Grant  was  a  man  to  whom  Wilson  could,  in  the 
first  year  of  his  administration,  publicly  apply  this  language 
when  appropriately  dedicating  to  his  Excellency  a  sermon  on 
"The  British  Sovereignty  in  India."  The  dedication  was 
based  on  "  the  confidence  which  I  entertain,  grounded  both 
on  your  well-known  sentiments  and  your  actings  since  your 
arrival  in  this  Presidency,  that  the  cause  of  Christian  and 
general  philanthropy  in  India,  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  your 
distinguished  father,  will  ever  secure  your  warmest  support 
in  the  high  station  in  which  God  in  his  providence  has  placed 
you."  Sir  Eobert  Grant,  and  his  elder  brother  Lord  Glenelg, 
were  sons  worthy  of  Charles  Grant,  who,  from  his  earliest 
experience  as  a  Bengal  civilian  in  1776,  had  devoted  himself 
to  the  moral  and  spiritual  regeneration  of  the  people  of  India. 
Afterwards,  as  author  of  those  Observations  on  the  Moral 
Condition  of  the  Hindoos  and  the  Means  of  Improving  it, 
which  were  written  in  1792,  and  have  almost  the  character  of 
prediction ;  as  chairman  of  the  Court  of  Directors  and  mem- 
ber for  the  county  of  Inverness,  the  head  of  the  Grants  of 
Grant  proved  to  be  the  mainspring  of  all  the  reforms  which 
were  forced  by  successive  charters  on  the  East  India  Company, 
up  to  that  of  1833.  While  his  elder  son  assisted  him  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  afterwards  as  a  Cabinet  Minister  and 
a  peer,  it  fell  to  Sir  Eobert  to  carry  out  in  Western  India  the 
enlightened  provisions  of  that  charter.  This  he  did  with  a 


132  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

wisdom  and  a  success  which  more  than  justified  Mr.  Wilson's 
eulogy ;  while  in  his  private  character  he  became,  when  at  the 
head  of  the  Bombay  Government,  the  author  of  those  hymns, 
four  of  which  Lord  Selborne  has  embalmed  for  ever  in  his 
Book  of  Praise,  among  the  four  hundred  best  sacred  lyrics  of 
the  language.  The  name  of  the  author  of  the  strains  begin- 
ning "  Saviour,  when  in  dust  I  lie,"  and  "  When  gathering 
clouds  around  I  view,"  will  be  always  dear  to  Christendom ; 
but  these  hymns  were  the  least  of  his  services  to  its  cause. 
His  last  act  as  Governor  of  Bombay  was  to  request  Mr. 
Wilson  to  submit  to  Government  a  plan  for  the  practical 
encouragement  of  a  sound  and  useful  education  of  the  natives, 
by  whomsoever  conducted,  whether  by  the  State,  by  mission- 
aries, or  by  natives  themselves. 

The  sermon  on  the  British  Sovereignty  in  India,  which, 
on  the  8th  of  November  1835,  Mr.  Wilson  preached  in  St. 
Andrew's  Church  for  the  Scottish  Mission,  marks  the  broad 
imperial  view  which  he  had  already  learned  to  take  of  our 
position  in  southern  Asia  as  rulers,  and  of  our  relation  to  the 
feudatory  Princes  who  have  been  incorporated  with  our 
political  system  by  Lord  Canning's  patent  only  since  the 
Mutiny  of  1857.  The  preacher's  subject  was  the  not  dis- 
similar mission  of  Cyrus.1  Mr.  Wilson  spoke  at  an  "  epoch- 
making"  time,  when  the  Charter  of  1833  had  in  India  just 
began  to  operate  in  the  two  directions  of  opening  the  trade  of 
the  East  India  Company  to  the  world,  and  securing  the 
education  of  the  people  in  the  English  language,  and  all  that 
that  fact  involved.  He  was  too  wise  and  equitable  a  mission- 
ary to  exaggerate  his  success  on  the  one  hand,  or  to  argue  on 
the  other  that  the  progress  of  the  Christian  church  in  India 
would  have  been  greater  if  the  State  had  devoted  public  funds 
to  it  as  well  as  to  education.  At  a  later  period,  in  1849,  he 
thus  wrote,  "  though  it  be  devoutly  admitted  that  the  exalted 

1  Isaiah  xlv.  1-4,  6-13. 


1835.]  EARLY  MISSIONARY  QUESTIONS.  133 

Saviour  demands  the  homage  of  governments  and  communi- 
ties, as  well  as  of  individuals,  it  is  obvious  that  the  professed 
expression  of  that  homage  by  the  exaction  of  pecuniary  con- 
tribution in  support  even  of  Christian  Institutions,  from  an 
unwilling  people,  may  be  questioned  without  any  want  of 
loyalty  to  Christianity  itself." 

All  through  this  period  the  Bombay  Union  of  Mission- 
aries showed  great  activity  in  the  number  and  variety  of  the 
questions  which  it  discussed.  Mr.  Wilson  was  the  secretary 
and  the  most  energetic  member.  Now  we  find  him  in  1832 
submitting  a  petition,  which  Lord  Bexley  presented  to  the 
House  of  Lords,  for  the  amelioration  of  the  Hindoo  and  Mu- 
hammadan  laws  of  property  and  inheritance  as  they  affected 
converts  to  Christianity,  which  resulted  in  Lord  William 
Bentinck's  first  concession  on  that  point,  to  be  completed 
long  after  by  Lord  Dalhousie  and  Lord  Lawrence.  Now  he 
reports  on  the  purchasing  and  receiving  donations  of  Oriental 
works  for  the  use  of  the  Union.  Now  he  gives  information 
regarding  the  similar  Christian  Union  in  China.  Now  he 
seeks  light  on  the  delicate  questions  raised  by  converts  as  to 
marriage  and  divorce,  which  he  helped  Sir  Henry  Maine  and 
the  Legislature  to  settle  for  ever  half  a  century  after.  Now 
he  proposes  and  discusses  such  questions  as  these — "Are 
there  any  instances  of  a  remarkable  progress  of  Christianity 
among  a  people  without  the  gospel  being  previously,  generally 
and  simultaneously,  proclaimed  among  them  ?"  "  How  is 
the  statement  that  Christ  is  an  object  of  worship  in  his  entire 
person  consistent  with  the  declaration  that  Christians  worship 
the  immaterial  God  alone?"1  "What  influences  tend  to 

1  Thus  decided  :  "  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  members  that  when  we  speak 
of  worshipping  the  immaterial  God  alone,  we  speak  of  serving  that  God  who, 
though  he  is  an  unchangeable  and  eternal  Spirit,  pervading  all  space,  dwells 
also  in  the  Incarnation  which  he  assumed,  with  a  perfect  union  of  the  divine 
and  human  natures,  and  who,  in  that  character  and  person,  as  well  as  in  all 
his  other  relations,  demands  the  homage  of  all." 


134  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

modify  and  destroy  Caste  ?  "  The  growing  extension  of  in- 
temperance and  drunkenness  under  the  excise  and  opium 
laws,  among  communities  who  are  temperate  by  climate, 
custom,  and  creed,  gave  at  that  early  period  a  peculiar 
interest  to  the  question  which  was  thus  decided :  "  The 
Union  are  of  the  opinion  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  Christians  in 
India  to  promote  and  encourage  the  cause  of  temperance 
societies ;  that  these  societies  should  be  formed  upon  the 
principles  of  the  Bible,  and  that  they  should  exhibit  the  pre- 
valence of  Christian  principles  as  the  grand  means  of  produc- 
ing temperance ;  also  that  they  should  be  formed  upon  the 
principle  of  entire  abstinence  from  all  ardent -spirits,  opium, 
tobacco,  and  other  intoxicating  drugs,  except  when  used  as 
medicines,  or  in  cases  of  extreme  urgency  and  necessity  ;  and 
moderation  in  the  use  of  fermented  and  other  liquors." 

The  spirit  of  union  and  co-operation  which  always  marks 
the  various  missionaries  abroad  in  the  face  of  the  common 
foe,  was  farther  illustrated  by  a  communication  from  the 
Presbytery  of  Kaffraria,  which  expressed  a  desire  for  friendly 
correspondence.  To  the  somewhat  narrow  remark  that  Cal- 
vinistic  Presbyterian  missionaries  should  be  more  united 
than  they  are,  or  than  the  Churches  at  home,  Mr.  Wilson 
appended  the  characteristic  note,  "We  would  add,  in  the 
spirit  of  gospel  Catholicism  and  all  Christian  missionaries.'' 
This  letter,  dated  4th  July  1832,  and  signed  "  John  Bennie, 
Moderator,"  describes  the  work  of  four  missionaries  at  Chumee 
and  Lovedale,  "  the  two  oldest  stations,  where  there  is  a  con- 
siderable population,"  and  Pirrie  and  Burnshill.  In  the  half 
century  since  we  get  this  glimpse  at  South  Africa,  Lovedale 
has  become  the  brightest  light  among  its  tribes,1  and  the  native 
question  seems  to  be  approaching  a  settlement,  in  the  East 
Indian  sense,  after  six  wars. 

1  See  Mr.  Anthony  Trollope's  testimony  in  his  South  Africa,  vol.  i.  p. 
216.     (1878). 


1835.]  CAREY  AND  MORRISON.  135 

India  itself  and  China  were  soon  after  to  lose  their  two 
foremost  scholar-missionaries,  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Carey  at 
Serampore  on  the  9th  June  1834,  at  the  age  of  seventy- three ; 
and  of  Dr.  Morrison  at  Canton  on  the  1st  August,  at  the 
comparatively  early  age  of  fifty-three.  Mr.  Wilson,  who  was 
still  beginning  in  Western  India  and  Asia  the  preparatory 
work  that  they  had  done  so  well  for  Eastern  and  Northern 
India,  and  for  China  and  Eastern  Asia,  wrote  thus  of  the  two 
men  whose  special  merits  he,  of  all  others,  was  best  fitted  to 
describe : — 

"  Dr.  Carey,  the  first  of  living  missionaries,  the  most  honoured  and 
the  most  successful  since  the  time  of  the  Apostles,  has  closed  his  long 
and  influential  career.  Indeed  his  spirit,  his  life,  and  his  labours  were 
truly  apostolic.  Called  from  the  lowest  class  of  the  people,  he  came  to 
this  country  without  money,  without  friends,  without  learning.  He 
was  exposed  to  severe  persecution,  and  forced  for  some  time  to  labour 
with  his  own  hands  for  his  support ;  yet  then  even,  in  his  brief  inter- 
vals of  leisure,  he  found  time  to  master  the  Hebrew  and  Bengalee  lan- 
guages, to  make  considerable  progress  in  the  Sanskrita,  and  to  write 
with  his  own  hand  a  complete  version  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  language 
of  the  country.  The  Spirit  of  God,  which  was  in  him,  led  him  forward 
from  strength  to  strength,  supported  him  under  privation,  enabled  him 
to  overcome  in  a  fight  that  seemed  without  hope.  Like  the  beloved 
disciple,  whom  he  resembled  in  simplicity  of  mind  and  in  seeking  to 
draw  sinners  to  Christ  altogether  by  the  cords  of  love,  he  outlived  his 
trials  to  enjoy  a  peaceful  and  honoured  old  age,  to  know  that  his 
Master's  cause  was  prospering,  and  that  his  own  name  was  named  with 
reverence  and  blessing  in  every  country  where  a  Christian  dwelt. 
Perhaps  no  man  ever  exerted  a  greater  influence  for  good  on  a  great 
cause.  Who  that  saw  him,  poor,  and  in  seats  of  learning  uneducated, 
embark  on  such  an  enterprise,  could  ever  dream  that,  in  little  more 
than  forty  years,  Christendom  should  be  animated  with  the  same 
spirit,  thousands  forsake  all  to  follow  his  example,  and  that  the  Word 
of  life  should  be  translated  into  almost  every  language,  and  preached 
in  almost  every  corner  of  the  earth  ? " 

"Dr.  Morrison,  whose  name  will  be  held  in  everlasting  remem- 
brance, died  at  Canton  on  the  1st  of  August  last,  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
three.  He  had  laboured  as  a  missionary  for  nearly  twenty-seven  years 


136  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

in  China,  and  (with  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Mylne  in  some  of  the  books) 
translated  the  Scriptures  into  Chinese,  compiled  and  published  a 
copious  Chinese  dictionary,  and  several  important  philological  works, 
prepared  and  circulated  many  Chinese  tracts,  founded  the  Anglo- 
Chinese  College  at  Malacca,  and  proved  the  means  of  the  conversion 
and  scriptural  education  of  Leang  Afa,  who  is  now  labouring,  with 
some  success,  as  a  native  preacher.  He  was  also  for  several  years 
interpreter  to  the  English  Factory,  and  he  supported  himself,  and  con- 
tributed much  to  the  cause  of  missions,  from  the  salary  which  he 
received  in  consequence  of  the  situation  which  he  thus  held." 

More  than  any  other  missionary  in  the  East,  Mr.  Wilson 
proved  to  be  their  successor.  It  is  a  subject  of  regret  that 
he  could  not  become  the  biographer  of  Carey,  whose  -life  has 
yet  to  be  worthily  written.1 

1  The  Memoir  by  Eustace  Carey,  his  nephew,  was  written  avowedly  at  the 
request  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  which  had  misunderstood  Dr.  Carey 
from  the  first,  and  is  unworthy  of  the  subject.  The  Lives  of  the  Serampore 
Missionaries,  by  the  late  John  Clark  Marshman,  C.  S.  I. ,  is  the  most  valuable 
contribution  made  to  the  history  of  Christian  and  social  progress  in  India, 
by  one  who  is  emphatically  the  Historian  of  British  India  before  the  Mutiny; 
but  its  theme  is  too  wide  to  represent  William  Carey  in  all  the  details  of  his 
unique  career. 


CHAPTER  V. 

1830-1835. 

TOURS  TO  NASIK  ;  TO  JALNA  AND  ELORA  ;  TO  GOA, 
KOLHAPORE,  AND  MAHABLESHWAR. 

Man  the  Missionary's  Business — Tours  of  Officials  and  Missionaries — John 
Wilson  a  delightful  companion — First  Tour  with  Mr.  Farrar — The  Glories  of 
the  Ghauts — The  Ramoshee  Brigands — Brahmanical  Opposition  at  Nasik — 
The  Sacred  Godavery — Second  Tour  to  Jalna — Battle  of  Korigaum — Ahmedabad 
—Worship  of  the  Monkey  God — Historical  Characters — The  Telescope  and 
Hindooism — Discussion  with  the  Jains — A  Christian  Government  quoted 
against  Christianity— Elora— Christ  preached  in  the  Cave  Temple  of  Kailas— 
Dowlutabad — Aurungabad — Opposition  of  the  Military  Authorities  at  Jalna — 
Mr.  Wilson  seriously  injured  by  a  horse  —  A  New  Hindoo  sect  —  Strange 
Iconoclasm — Ahmednuggur — Strolling  Players — Christian  Sectarianism  out  of 
place  in  India — Third  Tour  to  Goa — Old  Scenes  in  the  Konkan — Dr.  Claudius 
Buchanan— The  Inquisition  at  Goa— M.  DeUon's  Sufferings— New  and  Old 
Goa — Forged  Romish  Vedas — Latin  Conversations  with  Portuguese  Priests — 
A  Blushing  Prioress — His  Excellency  the  Vice  Rey — The  Augustinians  and 
Franciscans— The  Representatives  of  Sivajee— The  Raja  of  Kolhapore— Satara 
— Mahableshwar — A  tiger  springs  up  near  Mr.  Wilson. 


' '  The  celebrated  coast  of  India  trace, 
That  runs  down  southward  to  Cape  Comorin, 
Once  Kumari :  immediately  in  face 
Lies  (now  Ceylon  by  name)  Taprobane  ; 
Over  the  sea  the  Lusitanian  race, 
Who  shall  with  arms  and  fleets  come  after  thee, 
Shall  victories  gain,  cities  and  lands  possess, 
Which  shall  their  lives  for  many  ages  bless. 

"  The  provinces  round  which  these  rivers  flow, 
And  various  tides  contain,  are  infinite  : 
One  kingdom's  Mahmoud  ;  one  of  the  Gentoo, 
For  whom  the  devil  doth  laws  and  customs  write. 
Behold  Narsinga's  seignory  doth  show 
Sacred  oldest  remains  to  faithful  sight, 
St.  Thomas'  body,  Hero  Sanctified, 
Who  placed  his  doubting  hand  on  Jesus'  side. 

"  Here  was  the  city,  which  was  called  by  name 
Meliapor,  rich,  great,  well  favoured  : 
The  ancient  idols  it  adored,  the  same 
As  races  vile  are  now  to  worship  led  : 
Far  to  it  from  the  shore  the  people  came, 
When  the  great  Faith,  which  o'er  the  world  is  spread, 
Thomas  came  preaching,  who  had  travelling  sought 
A  thousand  provinces,  which  he  had  taught. 
***** 

"  Ganges  and  Indies,  Thomas,  thee  deplore, 
Weeps  all  the  ground  on  which  thou  once  didst  tread  ! 
The  souls  that  thou  hast  taught  yet  weep  the  more, 
Who  with  the  Sacred  Truth  were  clothed  and  fed  ; 
But  angels,  in  a  singing,  shining  choir, 
Keceive  thee  in  thy  glory  merited  ; 
We  pray  thee,  ask  assistance  of  the  Lord, 
And  to  thy  Lusians  favour  thus  afford  !  " 

CAMOENS  :  Aubertin's  Translation  of  The  Lusiads. 


1831.]  HOW  TO  KNOW  INDIA.  139 


CHAPTEE  V. 

"  THE  business  of  the  missionary  is  with  man,"  was  a  saying  of 
Dr.  Chalmers  that  Mr.  Wilson  frequently  quoted.  To  know 
India,  of  all  countries,  is  to  be  familiar  with  its  people ;  to  be 
acquainted  with  its  princes ;  and  to  understand  the  relation  of 
the  British  Government  and  its  administrative  systems  to 
both.  For  a  missionary  to  know  India,  he  must  add  to  all 
that  the  study,  at  first  hand,  of  its  religions  and  their  learned 
men,  Brahmanical,  Muhammadan,  and  Non- Aryan.  He  must 
possess  the  ability  to  lay  a  pure  and  a  historical  Christianity 
alongside  both  the  administrative  systems  and  the  religious 
philosophies  or  cultures,  so  as  to  saturate  the  former  with  the 
positive  and  direct  moral  spirit  which  they  necessarily  lack 
from  political  conditions,  and  to  overthrow  the  latter  by  the 
more  purely  spiritual  and  potent  force  of  Christ  Himself.  The 
ordinary  missionary  will  do  well  if  he  confines  his  energy  to 
one  of  the  three  faiths.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  Indian 
missionaries  have  worked  among  the  Hindoo  or  the  aboriginal 
communities,  who  are  vast  enough.  But  Mr.  Wilson  was  a 
pioneer  whose  deliberate  equipment,  as  well  as  his  evangelic 
ambition  allowed  no  human  or  traditional  substitute  for 
Christianity  to  remain  unstudied  or  unattacked.  The  official, 
civilian  or  soldier,  however  zealous,  has  to  be  content  with 
the  indirect  and  frequently  unconscious  disintegration  which 
has  been  going  on  in  India  ever  since  Clive  obtained  the  civil 
government  of  Benares  from  the  effete  emperor,  Shah  Alum. 
But,  freed  from  the  lower  responsibility  of  political  considera- 
tions, Mr.  Wilson  could  use  all  that  makes  the  civilian  efficient, 
and  press  it  home  at  once  with  a  moral  disinterestedness  and 


140  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1831. 

a  spiritual  force,  which  the  natives,  high  and  low,  were  not 
slow  to  appreciate.  Like  the  civilian,  and  to  a  far  greater 
extent  than  the  average  of  the  eight  or  nine  hundred  members 
of  the  covenanted  civil  service  who  have  always  governed  the 
millions  of  India  so  well,  he  held  the  key  to  the  ears  and 
hearts  of  the  people  in  a  knowledge  of  their  languages  and 
hoary  civilisations,  Aryan  and  Semitic.  Like  the  district 
officer  and  commissioner,  too,  but  with  a  freedom  and  over  an 
extent  of  territory  they  rarely  know,  he  made  his  almost 
annual  tours,  east  and  south  and  north,  to  the  very  centre  of 
India,  to  Goa,  and  again  to  the  far  Indus  and  the  courts  of 
Eajpootana,  till  he  knew  peasant  and  prince,  rude  ascetic, 
sacerdotal  Brahman,  and  scornful  Moulvie,  as  no  one  hedged 
round  by  officialism  could  do. 

Next  to  mastering  the  languages  it  was  his  object  to 
mix  with  the  people  who  spoke  them.  His  model  was  no 
lower  than  "  Our  Lord  and  His  apostles,"  with  whom  he  had 
more  than  once  to  silence  ignorant  critics  in  England. 
"Wherever,"  he  wrote,  "the  objects  of  their  ministry  most 
advantageously  presented  themselves,  they  were  prepared  to 
fulfil  it.  The  temple,  the  synagogue,  and  the  private  apart- 
ment ;  the  narrow  street  and  the  public  highway ;  the  open 
plain  and  the  lofty  mount ;  the  garden  and  the  wilderness ; 
the  bank  of  the  river  and  the  margin  of  the  sea ;  were  equally 
hallowed  by  these  heavenly  teachers."  And  he,  like  them, 
was  in  the  East !  "  But  many  say,  '  Leave  this  preaching 
without  doors  to  native  agents,  who  will  be  best  able  to  bear 
the  exposure  connected  with  it.'  .  .  .  Even  after  we  have 
been  blessed,  through  God's  mercy,  with  native  preachers, 
we  must  for  some  tune  show  them  in  our  own  persons  the 
lively  example  of  an  apostolic  ministration.  .  .  .  Xenophon 
remarked  that  the  Asiatics  would  not  fight  unless  under 
Greek  auxiliaries."  The  "exposure"  Mr.  Wilson  ridiculed, 
although  his  most  fruitful  tours  were  made  at  an  early  period, 


1831.]  ON  TOUR  WITH  JOHN  WILSON.  141 

when  even  roads  were  not,  and  a  paternal  government  had 
not  doubled  its  debt  to  develop  the  resources  of  the  country 
by  great  public  works.  Barely  did  he  find  a  comfortable  post- 
house  or  even  tolerable  resting-place  when  out  of  the  beaten 
track  of  military  stations  and  civilian  hospitalities.  Studying 
nature  as  well  as  man  ;  preaching,  speaking,  examining  daily ; 
keeping  up  the  correspondence  rendered  necessary  by  his 
supervision  of  the  still  infant  Mission  in  Bombay ;  answering 
references  of  all  kinds  from  missionaries,  officials,  and  scholars, 
he  found — because  he  made — the  tour  a  holiday.  On  such 
occasions  he  carried  a  few  books  in  an  old  satchel ;  manuals, 
sometimes  in  manuscript,  of  the  botany,  geology,  and  political 
relations  with  the  feudatory  princes,  being  as  indispensable  as 
the  bundles  of  vernacular  and  Sanscrit  writings  which  he  cir- 
culated. Thus  he  was  never  alone,  and  every  tour  added  to 
his  multifarious  collection  of  objects  of  natural  history  and 
archaeology,  to  say  nothing  of  Oriental  MSS.,  on  which  he 
lectured  to  his  students  and  friends.  When  accompanied  by 
a  brother  missionary,  and  frequently  by  survey  and  settlement 
officers,  like  Colonel  Davidson,  whom  he  met  in  his  wander- 
ings, he  proved  the  most  genial  of  companions.  His  stores  of 
information,  old  and  new,  interspersed  with  humorous  anec- 
dotes and  a  child-like  fun,  turned  the  frequent  mishaps  of 
jungle  journeys  into  sources  of  amusement.  And  then,  when 
the  travelling  or  the  preaching  of  the  day  was  done,  and  the 
rough  dinner  was  over  at  the  tent  door  or  in  the  native 
"  dhurmsala,"  or  enclosed  quadrangle,  there  went  up  to  heaven 
the  family  supplication  for  Gentile  and  Jew,  and  dear  ones 
near  and  far  away.  To  be  on  tour  in  the  glorious  cold  season 
of  India,  from  November  to  March,  is  to  enjoy  life  in  the 
purest  and  most  intelligent  fashion,  whether  it  be  in  the 
Viceroy's  camp  or  in  the  more  modest  tent  of  the  district 
civilian.  To  be  on  a  missionary  tour  with  one  who  thus 
understands  the  people  and  loves  them,  is  to  know  the  highest 
form  of  enjoyment  that  travel  can  give. 


142  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1831. 


Mr.  Wilson's  first  tour  commenced  in  the  middle  of  Janu- 
ary 1831,  after  a  year  of  organising  work  in  Bombay.  His 
companion  was  the  Kev.  Mr.  Farrar,1  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society,  who  was  just  beginning  to  be  able  to  speak  to  the 
Marathas.  They  rode  upwards  of  400  miles.  Their  most 
distant  point  was  the  sacred  Brahmanical  city  of  Nasik,  on  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Godavery.  They  set  out  by  the  Bhore 
Ghaut,  now  on  the  Madras  line  of  railway,  by  Poona,  and 
Ahmednuggur,  and  returned  by  the  Thull  Ghaut,  now  ascended 
by  the  railway  to  Calcutta.  They  sailed  from  Bombay  to 
Panwel,  on  the  mainland,  passing  the  cave-temple  islands  of 
Elephanta,  Salsette,  and  Karanja,  which  Mr.  Wilson  had  pre- 
viously visited  with  the  civilian  scholars  Messrs.  Law  and 
Webb.  At  the  next  village  he  met  with  the  first  specimens 
of  those  aboriginal  tribes  of  the  jungle  for  whom  he  was  to  do 
so  much,  the  Katkarees,  who  prepare  catechu.  His  first 
view  of  the  glories  of  the  Ghauts  of  the  Syhadree  range  he 
thus  describes  : — "  As  we  rose  from  the  valley  a  most  majestic 
scene  began  to  unfold  itself.  When  I  beheld  hill  rising  upon 
hill,  and  mountain  upon  mountain — the  sun  setting  in  glory 
behind  the  towering  clouds — the  distant  ocean,  forests,  rivers, 
and  villages — and  when,  looking  around  me,  I  observed, 
amid  this  scene  of  grandeur,  a  single  stone  usurping  the  place 
of  Jehovah,  the  Creator  of  all,  I  felt  and  expressed  the  utmost 
horror  at  idolatry,  and  the  baseness,  guilt,  and  stupidity  of 
man." 

Some  experience  of  Poona  convinced  him  of  the  superior 
importance  of  Bombay  as  a  centre.  On  their  way  to  Ahmed- 
nuggur one  of  the  servants  was  attacked  by  the  Eamoshee 
tribe  of  robbers,  at  that  time  scouring  the  country  under  their 
famous  leader  Oomajee  Naik,  compared  with  whom,  writes 

1  Dr.  "Wilson  used  to  tell  afterwards  how  he  dandled  Mr.  Farrar's  boy,  the 
present  Canon  Farrar,  on  his  knee.  But  of  his  Anglo-Indian  childhood 
Canon  Farrar  assures  us  he  has  only  a  dim  remembrance. 


1831.]  STONED  AT  NASIK.  143 

Mr.  Wilson,  Eob  Roy  might  be  reckoned  an  honest  man.  But 
Nasik  was  the  point  of  interest,  a  place  of  which  Mr.  Wilson 
used  to  say  that  it  first  stoned  him,  and,  forty  years  after, 
would  not  allow  him  to  leave  Western  India  for  a  time 
without  presenting  him  with  a  eulogistic  and  grateful  ad- 
dress on  parchment  from  its  principal  inhabitants  of  every 
sect.  Mrs.  Wilson  reports  the  visit  in  a  letter,  written  home 
in  February  1831  :— 

"  They  visited  many  places  by  the  way,  preaching  to  immense 
multitudes,  and  sleeping  all  night  in  temples,  or  outside  of  them,  with 
reeds  for  pillows.  He  gives  me  new  and  important  information  about 
the  incarnations  of  the  gods,  and  the  worship  paid  to  them.  '  Some  of 
the  facts,'  he  says,  '  are  too  horrible  to  relate.  One  temple  has  females 
of  abandoned  character  connected  with  it ; 1  but  even  this  is  not  the 
worst  of  its  hidden  mysteries  of  wickedness.' 

"They  began  their  preaching  in  the  principal  bazaar  at  the 
Peshwa's  palace.  Their  second  place  of  addressing  the  natives  was  the 
bank  of  the  holy  river  (the  Godavery),  where  the  Brahmans  were  per- 
forming ablutions.  Here  they  had  much  discussion,  but  were  prevented 
from  finishing  their  discourse  by  the  hissings  and  hootings  lavished 
upon  them  by  the  Brahmans.  On  their  return  home  they  observed 
even  the  Muhammadans  doing  homage  to  this  river  by  pulling  off  their 
shoes  as  they  approached  it.  On  the  following  day  a  great  concourse  of 
visitors  came  to  their  bungalow,  and  they  had  many  opportunities  of 
declaring  the  truths  of  the  blessed  Gospel.  Even  where  a  belief  of  the 
truth  has  not  been  produced,  a  general  scepticism  regarding  the  Hindoo 
religion  has  been  the  consequence  of  their  ministrations  and  discussions  ; 
and  in  this  city,  which  is  '  wholly  given  to  idolatry,'  without  even  one 
temple  erected  '  to  the  unknown  God,'  there  has  been  an  earthquake, 
and  a  shaking  among  the  dry  bones.  John  describes  the  scenery  around 
Nasik  as  sublime  and  beautiful  in  no  ordinary  degree.  The  mountains 
are  very  majestic;  but  everything  is  so  associated  with  the  reigning 
superstition  that  one  of  .these  is  "called  the  bed  of  Rama.  On  its 
summit  there  is  a  piece  of  table-land,  with  an  elevated  portion  at  the 
extremity,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  couch  of  the  god.  The  temples 
form  fine  specimens  of  Hindoo  architecture.  The  river  is  an  object  of 

1  Most  of  the  temples  of  any  note  have  them  as  a  regular  part  of  their 
establishment,  and  this,  too,  supported  by  the  British  Government ! — J.  W. 


144  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1831. 

great  attraction.  Besides  the  great  Rama-Kunda,  or  pool  for  bathing, 
there  are  eleven  other  pools  sacred  to  some  of  the  gods.  John  looks 
upon  Nasik  as  one  of  the  most  important  places  in  the  Presidency  for 
missionary  exertion.  He  says,  however,  that  he  would  not  wish  to  see 
any  one  there  but  a  person  deeply  versed  in  the  Shastres  and  acquainted 
with  Sanscrit.  He  mentioned  a  circumstance  which  proves  the  ignor- 
ance of  the  Brahmans,  or  how  much  the  peculiarities  of  Hindooism 
have  passed  into  oblivion.  They  revere  and  are  engaged  in  beautifying 
the  representations  in  some  celebrated  caves,  1  which  are  proved  to  be 
of  Buddhist  origin,  and  once  held  in  the  utmost  detestation  by  the 
Brahmans.  Mr.  Wilson  encountered  a  band  of  robbers  on  his  way 
home,  but  escaped  from  them  unhurt.  In  consequence  of  the  fatigue 
of  travelling  and  of  constant  preaching,  he  was  taken  ill  on  the  road, 
and  fainted  from  exhaustion.  ...  He  arrived  in  Bombay  on  Saturday 
night,  and  you  may  judge  what  were  our  feelings  of  rapture  on  again 
meeting.  I  think  his  health  has  profited  by  the  excursion  ;  and  he  has 
made  an  immense  accession  to  his  knowledge  both  of  the  languages  and 
customs  of  this  people." 

Nasik  was  soon  after  occupied  by  the  Church  Missionary- 
Society,  who  have  established  there  the  Christian  village  of 
Sharanpoor,  an  industrial  settlement  with  a  congregation  of 
five  hundred,  of  whom  some  two  hundred  are  communicants, 
and  a  training  school  for  freed  Africans,  who  helped  Dr. 
Livingstone.  The  Godavery  river,  the  scenery  on  the  lower 
reaches  of  which  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan,  when  Governor  of 
Madras,  compared  to  that  of  the  Ehine  between  Coblentz  and 
Bingen,  rises  at  the  village  of  Trimbuk,  only  fifty  miles  from 
the  Indian  Ocean  at  Bombay,  and  sixteen  miles  south-west  of 
Nasik.  The  Maratha  Brahmans  give  out  that  its  source  is 
connected,  by  a  divine  underground  channel,  with  that  of  the 
Ganges  in  the  snows  of  the  Himalayas.  The  traditional 
fountain  is  a  stone  platform,  approached  by  a  flight  of  690 
stone  steps,  on  a  hill  behind  Trimbuk  village.  On  to  that 
platform  the  stream  falls  from  the  rock,  drop  by  drop,  into 
the  mouth  of  an  idol,  out  of  which  the  water  trickles  into  a 
reservoir.  Sir  Eichard  Temple,  when  Chief  Commissioner  of 

1  At  Lena,  about  six  miles  from  Nasik. 


1832.]  HIS  SECOND  TOUR  TO  JALNA.  145 

the  Central  Provinces,  sketched  the  beauties  of  the  river 
alike  with  brush  and  pen.  It  has  been  the  scene  of  the 
greatest  successes  as  well  as  the  most  serious  and  expensive 
failures  of  the  Madras  school  of  Irrigation.1 

Of  the  second  tour,  eastward  to  Jalna  and  the  caves  of 
Elora,  in  the  native  State  of  Hyderabad,  the  country  which 
the  British  Government  had  saved  for  the  Mzam  all  through 

o 

the  chaos  of  Maratha,  Hyder  Ali,  and  Tippoo  wars,  we  have 
an  account  from  Mr.  Wilson's  own  pen,  in  letters  to  his  wife. 
At  a  time  and  in  a  country  for  the  greater  portion  of  which 
there  were  no  maps,  we  find  the  tour  duly  marked  out  in  a 
chart  showing  the  road  or  track,  on  one  side  of  it  every  village 
with  the  number  of  its  houses,  and  on  the  other  the  day  and 
date  on  which  each  was  reached.  The  Eev.  James  Mitchell 
was  his  companion.  After  Poona  they  walked  or  rode  short 
stages  of  from  ten  to  fourteen  miles  a  day  at  first.  At 
Alaudi,  the  first  stage  onward,  they  found  a  great  assem- 
blage for  the  festival  of  Inanoba,  a  god  of  whom  Mr.  Wilson 
gives  a  humorous,  but,  towards  the  people,  kindly  account, 
published  in  the  Memoir  of  his  wife.  At  the  next  village, 
Phulshuhur,  he  inspected  a  settlement  which  was  the  first  of 
a  curious  experiment  intended  to  train  that  most  valuable 
but  neglected  class,  the  East  Indians,  to  agricultural  pursuits. 
Sir  John  Malcolm,  in  his  farewell  minute  of  1830,  had  dis- 
cussed the  subject  to  which  the  present  Governor  of  Bombay, 
Sir  K.  Temple,  has  given  attention. 

"THE  COLOSSAL  PILLAR  AT  KORIGAUM. — This  monument  was 
erected  by  the  British  Government  in  commemoration  of  the  brave 
resistance  made  by  Captain  Staunton,  of  which  you  will  see  an  account 
in  Hamilton's  East  India  Gazetteer.  The  pillar  is  tastefully  constructed. 
It  is  in  charge  of  a  Sepoy,  who  was  engaged  in  the  action  which  it 
commemorates.  He  gave  us  a  plain  account  of  the  battle. 

1  Grant's  Gazetteer  of  the  Central  Provinces,  2d  ed.  ;  and  the  monograph 
of  Mr.  Morris  on  the  Godavery  District.     1878. 

L 


146.  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1832. 

"THE  PATEL  OR  HEADMAN  OF  SHIKRAPOOR. — After  we  had 
preached  in  the  village,  and  distributed  books  and  tracts,  the  Patel 
sent  for  us.  The  court  of  his  house  was  large,  but  it  bore  marks  of 
decay.  He  received  us  very  kindly,  and  invited  us  into  an  inner 
apartment.  As  soon  as  we  had  sat  down,  he  brought  out  a  box  con- 
taining about  twenty  very  handsome  European  engravings.  He 
requested  us  to  translate  all  their  titles  into  Marathee,  and  to  write 
them  upon  the  covers.  We  complied  with  his  request  ;  and  he  told 
us  that  never  in  his  life,  advanced  now  to  seventy  years,  had  he  met 
such  Sahebs  as  we.  We  preached  the  gospel  to  him  ;  and  he  furnished 
us  with  pan  supdri  (betel  nut  and  a  green  leaf),  according  to  the 
native  custom.  Mr.  Mitchell  had  a  great  aversion  to  chew  his  offering, 
and  he  almost  spoilt  our  discourse  by  pleading  in  excuse  the  force  of 
habit. 

"  AHMEDABAD  is  situated  to  the  westward  of  Seroor.  The  village 
is  much  gone  to  decay,  on  account  of  the  road  to  Poona  having  been 
changed  by  the  English.  It  is  remarkable  for  nothing  but  the  resi- 
dence of  the  oldest  representative  of  the  once  famous  house  of  Pawar, 
of  which  an  interesting  account  is  given  by  Sir  John  Malcolm.  We 
visited  the  old  man,  according  to  his  personal  invitation,  and  were 
received  with  much  kindness.  We  were  surprised  to  find  that  he  was 
unable  to  read.  He  showed  us  the  different  buildings  connected  with 
his  wada,  and  we  endeavoured  to  engage  the  interest  of  his  mind  by 
giving  him  and  his  few  attendants  a  simple  statement  of  the  gospel, 
and  by  allowing  him  to  view  the  neighbourhood  through  the  medium 
of  Mr.  Mitchell's  telescope. 

"WORSHIP  OF  HANUMAN,  THE  MONKEY  GOD. — In  most  of  the 
villages  of  the  Dekhan  there  is  a  small  temple  of  Hanuman,  under  the 
name  of  Marwate,  without  the  principal  gate.  The  images  are  exceed- 
ingly rude.  They  are  liberally  besmeared  with  red  lead  :  and,  alas  ! 
they  are  viewed  as  the  guardians  and  benefactors  of  the  neighbourhood, 
and  frequently  resorted  to.  One  of  them  fronted  the  place  in  which 
we  usually  sat  at  Parner.  The  votaries  generally  walked  twelve  or 
nineteen  times  round  it,  and  prostrated  themselves  before  it,  and  some- 
times refrigerated  it  with  cold  water  and  adorned  it  with  garlands. 
A  great  majority  of  them  were  females  demanding  the  boon  of  chil- 
dren. The  exercise  which  they  take  in  connection  with  their  worship 
may  not  be  without  effect. 

"  THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  NATIVES  of  these  agricultural  districts  is 
almost  daily  sinking  in  my  estimation.  Falsehood  and  dishonesty,  and, 
when  practicable,  incivility,  are  daily  brought  before  my  notice.  Dnr- 


1832.]  AMONG  THE  NATIVES.  147 

ing  the  night  which  we  spent  in  Jamgaum,  we  required  a  guard  of  two 
Ramoshees,  three  Bheels,  and  two  JMhars  !  The  latter  individuals  were 
always  on  the  watch  to  give  the  alarm.  The  others,  who,  as  you  know, 
are  professed  robbers,  think  it  beneath  their  dignity  to  keep  their  eyes 
open,  even  when  they  are  paid  for  their  guardianship,  and  represent  it 
as  necessary,  as  I  believe  it  is,  to  the  safety  of  travellers.  When  we 
arrived  at  Nimba  Dera,  on  the  forenoon  of  Tuesday  the  28th  Novem- 
ber, we  were  met  by  a  most  impertinent  Brahman,  who  first  by  false- 
hood, and  afterwards  by  passion,  endeavoured  to  drive  us  from  the  only 
place  where  we  could  get  shelter  from  the  sun.  He  was  joined  by  a 
companion,  who  without  hesitation  united  with  him  in  wickedness. 
Nothing  but  a  severe  reprimand,  and  the  threat  that  we  would 
represent  the  matter  to  the  Collector,  effected  anything. 

"  FAILURE  OF  THE  CROPS. — In  some  of  the  villages  through  which 
we  passed  on  our  way  to  Nimba  Dera,  we  were  informed  that,  on 
account  of  the  great  drought,  the  crops  of  the  season  had  almost  entirely 
failed.  Though  the  complaints  of  the  natives  were  conveyed  to  us  in 
a  tone  which  clearly  intimated  to  us  anything  but  resignation  to  the 
divine  will,  they  were  very  heartrending.  Starvation  appeared  to  be 
apprehended  by  not  a  few,  and,  from  the  dread  of  it,  many  of  the 
inhabitants  had  departed  with  their  cattle  to  the  banks  of  the 
Godavery  and  Kandesh.  We  distributed  at  several  places  a  few 
rupees,  and  they  were  received  with  joy.  We  endeavoured  to  im- 
prove the  righteous  dispensation  of  divine  providence,  and  we  urged 
upon  all  the  acknowledgment  of  the  supreme  God,  who  alone  can  give 
rain  and  fruitful  seasons. 

"THE  JAGHEERDARS  OF  WAMBOOREE  are  sons  to  Balwant  Rao 
Nagunath,  one  of  two  officers  to  whose  custody,  in  the  fort  of  Shivaner, 
Nana  Furnavees  entrusted  Bajee  Rao  ;  and  his  brother,  Balwant  Rao, 
was  thrown  into  a  hill  fort  for  permitting  a  correspondence  between 
Bajee  Rao  and  his  cousin  Mahdoo  Rao,  the  young  Peshwa.  We 
informed  them  of  our  intention  to  call  upon  them  ;  and  they  expressed 
their  pleasure  at  the  proposal.  We  went  to  them  immediately  after 
dinner  ;  and  we  found  that  the  two  brothers  (for  we  did  not  see  a  third) 
had  invited,  in  the  expectation  of  seeing  us,  a  great  number  of  the 
most  respectable  natives  to  assemble.  We  sat  down  on  a  mat  which 
they  spread  out  for  us,  and  entered  freely  into  conversation  with  them, 
and  especially  with  the  elder  brother,  who  is  styled  Dajee  Saheb.  We 
found  them  very  inquisitive  and  polite,  and  much  more  accommodating 
in  their  feelings  than  many  other  Brahmaixs  of  less  significance.  They 
asked  us  to  give  them  a  general  view  of  the  Christian  religion.  They 


148  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1832. 

were  much  interested  in  the  statement  given,  and  tolerant  of  the 
objections  made  against  Hindooism.  They  discoursed  with  us  a  short 
time  on  the  subject  of  education,  and  seemed  pleased  with  the  notice 
which  we  took  of  their  children.  When  I  pressed  upon  one  of  the 
boys  the  necessity  of  application  to  his  studies,  the  father  said  '  now 
you  must  give  your  whole  mind  to  the  subject,  and  when  Mr.  Wilson 
returns  to  Wambooree  you  shall  have  his  approbation.'  We  spoke  to 
them  on  the  subject  of  female  education,  and  told  them  that  the 
Governor  was  greatly  pleased  with  the  Kaja  of  Satara  for  having  taught 
his  daughter.  I  told  them  about  the  progress  of  female  education  in 
Bombay  ;  and  they  were  delighted  to  hear  that  you  could  speak 
Marathee  and  Hindostanee,  and  had  so  many  girls  under  your  care. 
The  musical  boxes  and  some  other  curiosities  quite  charmed  them. 
On  parting  with  them  they  expressed  their  highest  satisfaction  with  us. 
We  presented  them  with  two  fine-bound  New  Testaments,  and  a  copy 
of  the  Exposure  of  Hindooism,  etc.,  and  distributed  among  the  assembly 
a  considerable  number  of  Gospels  and  tracts.  Dajee  Saheb  and  two  of  his 
sons  visited  us  in  the  evening,  and  stayed  with  us  upwards  of  two  hours. 
He  looked  at  the  comet,  the  planets,  and  the  moon,  through  Mr. 
Mitchell's  telescope,  and  maintained  a  very  long  and  very  interesting 
conversation  with  me  about  the  religion,  manners  and  customs,  govern- 
ment, education,  climate,  public  institutions,  etc.,  of  Britain,  and  the 
merits  of  Hindooism.  I  have  never  found  a  native  more  desirous  of 
information  than  he  appeared  to  be  ;  and  if  any  weight  is  to  be 
attached  to  his  declarations,  it  may  be  concluded  that  he  was  never 
more  interested  in  any  European  than  in  the  Missionaries.  I  was 
quite  overcome  with  fatigue  when  he  left  us;  and,  considering  the 
fulness  and  frequency  with  which  the  Gospel  had  been  preached  during 
the  day,  the  numbers  and  attention  of  the  auditors,  and  the  precious 
portions  of  divine  truth  put  into  circulation,  I  could  not  but  devoutly 
thank  God  for  his  great  goodness  towards  us. 

"VISIT    TO    SONAI   AND     INTERVIEW    WITH    THE    JAINS. At     Sonai 

our  labours  were  very  comfortable.  Great  numbers  of  the  natives 
attended  and  received  from  our  lips  and  our  hands  the  doctrines  of 
salvation.  A  Jain  appeared  to  be  particularly  impressed  ;  he  took 
down  my  address  and  promised  to  call  on  me  in  Bombay.  We 
addressed  many  individuals  of  his  creed  during  the  day,  who  were 
Marwarees,  and  the  principal  corn  merchants  in  the  town.  They 
allowed  the  existence  of  one  God  in  a  manner  inconsistent  with  the 
tenets  of  their  sect  ;  but  they  violently  contended  for  the  identity  of 
life  as  diffused  throughout  all  kinds  of  existences.  It  was  very  difficult, 


1832.]  AMONG  THE  NATIVES THE  DROUGHT.  149 

from  the  view  which  they  took  of  this  subject,  to  bring  home  the 
charge  of  guilt  to  their  consciences.  We  opposed  their  statements  by 
bringing  before  their  notice  the  non-intelligence  of  the  brute  creation 
as  contrasted  with  the  intelligence  and  progressive  improvement  of 
man,  and  the  ignorance  and  sin  of  man  as  contrasted  with  the 
knowledge  and  goodness  of  that  Intelligence  which  we  affirmed  to  pre- 
side over  the  universe.  In  the  course  of  the  day  a  learned  Brahman, 
who  was  listening  to  me,  burst  forth  into  a  great  passion.  '  It  would 
be  well,'  he  said,  on  leaving  the  circle,  '  that  you  sported  your  senti- 
ments only  among  the  learned.  You  will  infallibly  confound  the 
ignorant.'  I  expressed  my  hope  that  his  prophecy  would  prove  true, 
and  I  took  advantage  of  his  exhibition  to  show  to  all  around  the 
propriety  of  the  word  of  God  being  made  known  to  all. 

"  VISIT  TO  HIWAKA  AND  THE  FAUJDAR. — We  arrived  at  Hiwara  on 
the  morning  of  the  30th  November,  and  we  took  up  our  abode  in  a 
mosque.  We  called  upon  Muhammad  Kaim,  who  is  styled  the  Faujdar, 
and  who  resides  in  a  large  castle  belonging  to  himself.  He  is  the  son 
of  the  late  Nuwab  Kavi  Jang,  and  a  very  interesting  old  man.  He  is 
the  descendant  of  an  adopted  son,  Turk-Tas-Khan,  a  native  of  Bokhara, 
who  came  to  the  Dekhan  with  Aurungzeb,  and  who,  after  a  variety  of 
distinguished  military  adventures,  was  appointed  Faujdar  of  Ahmed- 
nugger.  He  has  been  particularly  friendly  to  the  English,  and  he 
showed  us  several  certificates  bearing  testimony  to  the  fact  which  he 
had  received  from  several  gentlemen.  He  treated  us  with  sherbet  from 
a  bottle  from  which  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  etc.,  had  drank  in  former 
days.  His  son  called  upon  us  in  the  evening,  and  we  presented  him 
with  the  New  Testament  in  Persian,  Hindostanee,  and  Marathee,  and 
with  copies  of  the  l  Remarks  on  Muhammadanism.'  The  family  is 
now  very  poor,  having  only  a  pension  of  Rs.61  per  month.  We  enjoyed 
a  fine  view  of  the  country  from  the  top  of  the  castle.  Many  fertile 
spots  were  visible,  but  the  whole  region  showed  the  want  of  rain. 

"  PRAWARA  SANGAM,  AND  TOKA,  1st  December. — The  road  from 
Hiwara  to  Prawara  Sangam  leads  through  a  part  of  the  country  dis- 
tinguished by  an  excellent  soil,  but  at  this  season  suffering  considerably 
from  the  drought.  We  had  no  opportunities  of  preaching  on  the 
way  ;  but  we  had  no  sooner  finished  our  day's  journey  than  we  were 
surrounded  by  great  crowds  of  Brahmans  and  other  natives,  who 
evinced  the  greatest  eagerness  to  hear  our  discourses  and  to  receive  our 
books,  and  who  had  an  opportunity  of  gratifying  their  desires  on  four 
or  five  occasions.  They  behaved  with  the  greatest  civility,  and  treated 
us  with  much  respect.  In  the  evening  we  took  a  walk  on  the  banks 


150  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1832. 

of  the  Godavery.  It  is  at  this  place,  and  even  at  this  season,  a  very 
considerable  stream.  Numbers  of  the  Brahmans  were  performing 
their  evening  ablutions  at  the  spot  where  the  river  Prawara  enters  it. 
They  form  a  numerous  class  in  the  neighbourhood.  In  Prawara 
Sangam  there  are  a  hundred  houses  of  them ;  in  Toka,  which  is 
situated  on  the  opposite  bank,  there  is  the  same  number  ;  and  in 
Gaigaam,  about  half  a  quarter  of  a  mile  farther  down  the  river,  there 
are  about  ninety  houses.  Many  of  them  engage  in  agriculture,  but  a 
great  source  of  their  support  is  the  dalcshina  (alms)  which  they  receive 
from  the  pilgrims  who  come  to  bathe  in  the  holy  waters.  This  cluster 
of  villages,  and  Nasik  and  Paithan,  form  the  only  sacred  towns  on  the 
Godavery  which  are  situated  in  the  Marathee  country.  I  should 
think  that  their  celebrity  is  on  the  decline.  The  progress  of  know- 
ledge, and  the  increasing  poverty  of  the  people,  contribute  principally 
to  the  destruction  of  the  pristine  zeal.  No  true  philanthropist  can 
regret  the  circumstance,  for  nothing  can  be  more  melancholy  than  the 
delusion  under  which  men  labour  when  they  believe  that  they  can 
wash  away  their  sins  in  .a  river,  and  acquire  a  stock  of  merit  by  all  the 
trouble,  fatigue,  and  expense  which  they  incur  in  the  fulfilment  of 
their  wishes.  In  the  course  of  the  day  we  had  laboured  much  to 
expose  it,  and,  I  trust,  with  some  effect.  None  of  the  natives,  like 
Shookaram  Shastree,  at  the  first  discussions  in  Bombay,  alluded  to  any 
sacramental  use  of  the  waters — a  circumstance  which  is  worthy  of 
notice,  and  particularly  as  we  had  intercourse  with  the  most  learned 
Shastree.  The  benefit  of  ablution  was  argued  to  be  positive,  to  be  an 
invaluable  and  unavoidable  blessing  to  all  who  use  it,  according  to  the 
many  promises  and  declarations  of  the  Shastres  relative  to  the  virtues 
of  the  Ganges.  The  Hindoos  and  Eoman  Catholics  are  wonderfully 
agreed  about  the  efficacy  of  rites  intrinsically  considered.  On  returning 
home  we  saw  a  very  large  and  splendid  meteor  proceeding  in  a  direc- 
tion horizontal  to  the  earth.  It  was  visible  for  a  considerable  time. 
The  natives  assured  us  that  a  few  days  ago  hundreds  of  a  similar 
nature  were  seen,  and  that  they  were  greatly  terrified  by  the  unusual 
occurrence. 

"At  Toka  we  went  to  the  house  of  Baba  Shastree,  the  richest 
Brahman  in  the  place,  and  we  were  rather  surprised  to  find  him 
desirous  of  conducting  us  into  an  inner  apartment  of  the  upper  story. 
We  were  happy  to  perceive  the  liberality  of  his  sentiments  and  feelings, 
and  we  had  no  objections  to  gratify  him.  We  found  a  respectable 
congregation  assembled,  and  we  gave  a  general  view  of  the  Gospel,  and 
of  the  objections  which  we  commonly  urge  against  Hindooism.  We 


1832.]  THE  E.  I.  COMPANY'S  SUPPORT  OF  IDOLATRY.  151 

were  heard  with  respect,  and  nothing  was  urged  in  reply  to  us  except 
the  encouragement  granted  by  Europeans  to  idolatry.  Augustus 
Brookes  of  Benares,  known  among  the  natives  as  Gasti  Brtik,  it  was  said, 
had  become  a  convert  to  Hindooism.  The  E.  I.  Company  was  liberal 
in  its  donations  to  temples.  The  great  Saheb,  Governor  Elphinstone, 
had  distributed  money  among  the  Brahmans  when  he  visited  Toka, 
and  had  given  a  salaarn  and  Us.  100  to  the  god.  The  Collectors  were  in 
the  habit  of  employing  Brahmans  to  perform  anusthans  for  rain,  etc. 
It  was  exceedingly  difficult  to  deal  with  the  observations  which  they 
made  on  these  subjects.  I  told  them,  on  the  information  of  the  late 
Dr.  Turner,  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  communicated  to  me  during  his  visit 
to  Bombay,  that  Mr.  Brookes  had  expressed  his  regret  for  the  counte- 
nance which  he  had  given  to  the  delusions  of  the  natives  ;  that  it  was 
not  to  be  concluded  that,  because  the  Company  had  continued  the 
revenue  of  temples,  it  approved  of  these  temples,  and  that  I  hoped  that 
it  would  soon  see  the  impropriety  and  sin  of  giving  any  support 
to  them  ;  that  I  could  not  credit  the  statements  given  about  Mr. 
Elphinstone,  a  gentleman  who  greatly  promoted  the  improvement  of 
the  natives,  and  who  subscribed  to  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,  and 
that  the  Es.100  were  probably  placed  by  the  Brahmans  without  his 
consent  before  the  idol  ;  and  that,  while  the  anushtans  were  performed 
to  please  the  natives,  the  payment  of  them  by  the  Company,  and  every 
other  species  of  encouragement  granted  to  idolatry,  was  decidedly 
sinful.  I  also  expressed  my  hope  that  the  time  was  at  hand  when 
right  views  on  these  subjects,  and  other  practices  sanctioned  without 
consideration,  would  generally  prevail  among  Europeans.  All  the 
Brahmans  admitted  the  propriety  of  the  Company,  as  a  Christian  Govern- 
ment, giving  nothing  more  than  toleration  to  the  Hindoo  religion.  Their 
wishes,  I  doubt  not,  were  nevertheless  what  we  might  expect  them 
to  be. 

"  At  half-past  nine  o'clock  he  invited  us  to  return  to  his  lodgings, 
with  the  view  of  witnessing  a  display  of  fireworks,  and  the  performance 
of  native  musicians,  etc.,  which  he  intended  as  a  compliment  to  us. 
We  explained  our  views  of  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  ;  and  it  was 
with  great  difficulty  that  he  accepted  of  our  refusal.  "We  gave  him 
credit  for  his  intentions  ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  his  respect  for  us 
was  increased  by  our  consistency.  I  should  have  mentioned  before, 
that  I  asked  him  why  he  had  left  the  *  holy  city '  of  Kashee  (Benares), 
and  come  on  a  journey  to  Toka  in  search  of  merit.  He  pleaded  the 
respect  of  his  family  for  the  idol  at  Toka.  When  I  told  him  that  in 
the  Marathee  language  the  term  Ivdshikare  was  equivalent  to  that  of  an 


152  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1832. 

arch-villain,  and  that  the  circumstance  told  little  in  favour  of  the 
1  sacredness '  of  Varandsi,  he  laughed  very  heartily. 

"  In  the  evening  we  rode  on  to  Shapura.  The  noise  of  our  pro- 
ceedings at  Toka,  etc.,  had  reached  the  village  before  us  ;  and,  long 
after  the  sun  had  gone  down,  the  inhabitants  voluntarily  came  to  us  as 
a  body  to  hear  the  glad  tidings.  Though  we  were  much  exhausted,  we 
both  preached  to  them.  They  expressed,  like  many  of  their  country- 
men, great  readiness  to  add  the  name  of  Christ  to  the  calendar  of  their 
gods  ;  and  we  urged  His  exclusive  claims  to  their  love  and  adoration. 

"  ELORA,  4th  December. — After  a  Very  fatiguing  ride  in  the  sun 
we  arrived  at  Roza.  At  this  place  there  is  a  bungalow  belonging  to  a 
Mussulman  gentleman  ;  but  we  found  it  occupied  by  two  officers.  They 
•did  not  invite  us  to  come  in  ;  and,  after  tying  our  ponies  to  a  branch 
of  a  tree,  and  engaging  in  social  worship,  we  stretched  ourselves  on  the 
stone  floor  of  a  large  mausoleum,  built  by  the  Emperor  Aurungzeb. 
We  took  our  breakfast,  at  one  o'clock  ;  and  proceeded  to  make  our  first 
visit  to  Kailas,  the  principal  Brahmanical  excavation  of  Elora.  We 
remained  in  it  till  after  sunset,  examining  its  many  wonders  and 
curiosities. 

"  5th  December. — We  set  out  very  early  in  the  morning  to  the 
excavations.  We  commenced  with  those  situated  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  hill,  and  went  regularly  through  them  all  proceeding  to  the 
south.  We  gave  them  a  very  minute  examination  ;  and  I  wrote  down 
50  pages  of  notes  on  them,  of  which  the  following  is  a  summary  : — 
The  caves  are  situated  in  a  ridge  of  hills  which  run  north  and  south, 
with  an  inclination  in  the  centre  towards  the  east.  They  are  not  far 
from  the  base  of  the  hills  ;  and  the  entrance  to  them  commands  a  very 
extensive  and  interesting  view  of  the  Dekhan  towards  the  west.  The 
rock  out  of  which  they  are  cut  is  of  the  trap  formation,  and  well 
suited  for  their  marvellous  workmanship.  They  are  undoubtedly  of 
three  different  kinds,  Jain,  Buddhist,  and  Brahmanical.  The  Jain 
caves  are  situated  in  the  northern  part  of  the  hills,  the  Brahmanical  in 
the  centre,  and  the  Buddhist  in  the  south.  It  is  difficult  to  say  which 
of  them  are  the  most  extensive  and  interesting.  The  Brahmanical 
excel  as  works  of  art.  The  accounts  which  are  given  of  their  wonder- 
ful structure  do  not,  on  the  whole,  fall  beyond  the  truth.  The  Buddhist 
caves,  from  the  nature  of  the  workmanship,  and  from  the  appearance 
of  the  rock,  appear  to  me  to  be  the  most  ancient. 

"  I  preached  the  gospel  in  the  temple  of  Kailas  to  thirty  natives, 
and  Mr.  Mitchell  followed  me.  Little  did  the  formers  of  this  wonder- 
ful structure  anticipate  an  event  of  this  kind.  We  are  in  all  probability 


1832.]  PEE  ACHES  IN.  THE  KAILAS  OF  ELORA.  153 

the  first  messengers  of  peace  who  have  declared  within  it  the  claims  of 
Jehovah,  announced  his  solemn  decree  to  abolish  the  idols,  and  en- 
treated his  rebellious  children  to  accept  of  the  mercy  proposed  through 
His  Son.  Some  of  our  auditors  pointed  to  the  magnificent  arches  and 
stupendous  figures  around  us,  as  the  very  works  of  God's  own  hand  ; 
but  we  pointed  them  to  the  marks  of  the  instruments  of  the  mason, 
to  the  innumerable  proofs  of  decay  everywhere  exhibited,  and  to  the 
unsuitableness,  absurdity,-  and  impiety  of  the  representations.  We 
directed  their  minds  to  Him  '  Who  sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the  earth, 
and  the  inhabitants  thereof  are  as  grasshoppers,  That  stretcheth  out  the 
heavens  as  a  curtain,  and  spreadeth  them  out  as  a  tent  to  dwell  in  ; ' 
and  we  called  upon  them  '  to  lift  up  their  eyes  on  high,  and  behold 
Who  hath  erected  these  things,  That  bringeth  out  their  host  by  number : 
Who  calleth  them  all  by  names,  by  the  greatness  of  His  might,  for  that 
He  is  strong  in  power  ;  not  one  faileth.'  They  could  not  resist  our 
appeal ;  but  in  all  probability  we  had  not  long  left  them,  when  they 
would  practically  deny  their  own  admissions. 

"  DOWLUTABAD. — We  departed  from  Koza  late  in  the  evening  ;  but 
before  leaving  it  we  inspected  the  graves  of  the  illustrious  Aurungzeb, 
his  son,  and  several  other  distinguished  personages.  The  Mussulmans 
had  lights  burning  near  them,  and  evidently  viewed  them  as  possessed 
of  no  small  degree  of  sacredness.  Our  ride  to  Dowlutabad  was  down  a 
steep  hill.  We  travelled  by  moonlight.  The  gates  of  the  fort  were 
shut  when  we  arrived,  and  it  was  in  vain  that  we  sought  admission. 
We  slept  for  a  few  hours  in  a  shed. 

"  AURUNGABAD,  6th  December. — We  rose  early  in  the  morning,  and 
after  examining  the  curious  fort  of  Dowlutabad,  which  is  very  correctly 
described  by  Hamilton,  we  proceeded  to  Aurungabad.  We  took  up  our 
residence  in  an  empty  bungalow  in  the  cantonments.  In  the  evening 
we  walked  into  the  city,  conversed  with  a  few  Mussulmans,  and  dis- 
tributed among  them  Hindostanee  tracts.  They  showed  us  a  very 
splendid  mosque. 

"  JILGAUM,  7th  December. — We  rode  through  Aurungabad.  A  great 
part  of  its  site  is  a  mere  ruin,  and  a  great  part  of  it  within  the  walls 
seems  to  have  been  used  as  a  burying-ground.  From  the  gate  at  which 
we  entered  to  that  at  which  we  came  out  is  a  distance  of  nearly  three 
miles.  We  arrived  at  Jilgaum,  distant  from  Aurungabad  about  twenty 
miles,  at  noon.  We  had  suffered  a  great  deal  from  the  heat,  and  we 
resolved  never,  without  absolute  necessity,  to  expose  ourselves  in  this 
manner  again.  Our  luggage  did  not  come  up  till  about  4  o'clock 
P.M.,  and  we  were  not  a  little  anxious  on  account  of  our  fatigue  and 


154  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1332. 

hunger.  We  had  not  the  consolation  that  we  were  called  to  endure 
either  in  the  cause  of  duty.  They  were  the  result  of  our  own  im- 
prudent arrangements. 

"  In  the  evening  I  preached  in  Hindostanee,  and  Mr.  Mitchell 
preached  in  Marathee.  We  gave  few  books  away.  Most  of  the  in- 
habitants are  Mussulmans.  The  hills  which  we  crossed  at  Ellora 
appear  to  be  the  natural  boundary  of  the  Marathee  language  in  this 
direction,  though  many  of  the  cultivators,  as  far  as  we  have  yet  come, 
understand  and  speak  it. 

"  JALNA. — At  Jalna,  which  is  twenty-one  miles  east  of  Jilgaum, 
we  arrived  at  ten  o'clock.  We  were  received  with  much  warmth  and 
kindly  feeling  by  Captain  Wahab.  There  are  several  young  officers  and 
their  wives,  who  are  in  very  hopeful  circumstances  ;  and  who  may 
receive  much  benefit  from  our  visit.  I  baptized  the  child  of  Lieutenant 

.     She  is  an  illegitimate  of  three  years  old,  and  a  sweet -looking 

little  girl.  I  have  had  much  satisfaction  in  conversing  with  the  father, 
who  appears  a  true  penitent.  I  was  asked  to-day  to  baptize  another 
child  ;  but  the  father  did  not  meet  my  views.  To-morrow  I  intend  to 
baptize  the  infant  of  Captain  Tompkins.  He  is  a  convert  of  Henry 
Martyn,  but  he  dislikes  the  English  form  of  baptism.  He  is  an  ex- 
cellent person,  and  useful  as  an  instructor  of  the  heathen. 

"  On  Tuesday  we  preached  to  a  large  and  noisy  audience  in  the 
bazaar,  and  distributed  a  considerable  number  of  books,  which  were 
received  with  much  eagerness.  One  of  the  tracts,  the  Remarks  oil 
Muhammadanism,  was  handed  up  to  the  Colonel  commanding  the  station, 
by,  we  believe,  some  European  officer  ;  and  his  fears  have  been  so  much 
excited  by  the  reports  from  Bangalore  that  he  requested  us  to  circulate 
no  more  copies  at  present  in  the  cantonment.  We  explained  the  nature 
of  the  tract  to  him,  and  we  told  him  that  in  the  circumstances  of  the 
case  we  should  not  continue  to  distribute  it. 

"  15  th  December. — Since  I  last  wrote  to  you  the  enemy  of  souls 
has  been  busy  at  this  station,  and  he  has  succeeded  in  stirring  up  two 
or  three  of  his  European  votaries  to  represent  to  the  authorities  here 
that  our  tracts  are  calculated  to  excite  to  sedition,  to  recall  a  great 
number  of  them  and  consign  them  to  the  flames,  and  to  advise  the 
total  prohibition  of  any  further  circulation.  The  consequence  is  that 
we  have  been  forbidden  to  circulate  any  more,  and  that,  in  our  present 
circumstances,  we  have  seen  it  expedient  to  dismiss  all  further  applica- 
tions. I  doubt  not  that  in  a  few  days  shame  will  cover  those  who  have 
thus  opposed  the  work  of  God.  Indeed,  they  already  begin  to  feel  its 
burnings.  You  must  not  imagine  from  what  I  have  now  said  that  our 


1832.]  A  COLONEL  STOPS  HIS  WOHK.  155 

residence  here  has  become  unprofitable  or  unpleasant.  The  very  con- 
trary is  the  case.  Our  pious  friends  have  cleaved  more  closely  than 
ever  ;  and  even  those  who  were  formerly  indifferent  have  been  in  some 
degree  interested.  We  have  received  and  accepted  an  invitation  for 
dinner  from  one  of  the  informers. 

"  I  received  a  severe  kick  from  a  horse,  which  has  laid  me  up  for  a 
little.  I  have  suffered  a  great  deal  of  pain  from  the  blow,  which  was 
inflicted  on  the  front  bone  of  my  right  leg  below  the  knee  ;  but  I  have 
reason  to  be  thankful  that  no  serious  danger  is  apprehended.  At  first 
I  had  a  few  convulsive  shocks  ;  but  they  soon  went  off.  I  am  entirely 
free  from  sickness,  and  the  injury  appears  inconsiderable. 

"  22c?  December. — I  am  now  so  well  that  I  write  to  you  upon  my 
chair.  D.V.  I  preach  to-morrow  evening  sitting.  On  Monday  I  pro- 
pose to  set  out  for  my  dearest  love.  I  have  engaged  twelve  porters  to 
carry  me  down  for  Rs.112. 

"  On  the  evening  in  which  I  received  the  injury,  and  before  its 
infliction,  we  had  an  interesting  interview  with  four  Hindoo  sectaries, 
who  denominate  themselves  Mdnbhdvas.  Their  tenets  appear  to  me  to 
be  similar  to  those  of  the  late  Narayan  Swami  of  Goojarat.  They  dis- 
claim on  their  own  account,  but  not  on  account  of  the  ignorant,  the 
practice  of  ceremonies,  and  profess  to  rest  all  their  hopes  of  salvation, 
as  their  name  implies,  on  their  faith.  They  profess  to  view  the 
narratives  of  the  Puranas  as  authentic  history  ;  but  they  hold  that  their 
narratives  are  inapplicable  in  practice  to  the  circumstances  of  those  who 
devote  themselves  to  the  contemplation  of  the  one  God  without  form 
and  without  quality.  We  pointed  out  the  inadequacy  and  the  errors 
of  their  views  ;  and  urged  them  to  prosecute  inquiry.  One  of  them, 
who  took  the  lead  in  the  conversation,  and  who  appeared  to  possess  a 
considerable  degree  of  learning,  acknowledged  the  truth  of  our  observa- 
tions, but  expressed  his  displeasure  that  we  should  have  made  known 
our  views  to  the  ignorant  who  surrounded  us.  He  thus  acted  in  the 
true  spirit  of  Hindooism. 

"PAITHAN,  27th  December. — Immense  multitudes  of  the  people 
came  to  the  mosque  to  receive  books,  and  to  listen  to  our  discourses. 
In  this  circumstance  I  see  the  goodness  of  God.  Had  they  not  visited 
us  I  must  have  been  unable  to  preach  to  them  on  account  of  my  leg. 
In  the  evening  we  went  to  Shivagaum,  which  belongs  to  the  Company. 
The  natives  showed  greater  kindness  to  us  on  our  arrival  than  their 
neighbours  in  the  Nizam's  country  have  been  accustomed  to  do.  They 
are  more  familiar  with  the  English  character  than  the  trans-Goda- 
verians,  and  they  are  perhaps  afraid  to  practise  insolence. 


156  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1833. 

"  NANDOOR  NIMBHA  AND  SHINGWA,  28th  December. — We  left  Shiva- 
gaum  early  in  the  morning,  and  proceeded  to  Nandoor  Nimbha.  This 
village  is  small,  and  almost  all  the  male  inhabitants  of  it,  and  a  few 
females,  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing  the  Gospel.  We  offered  them 
Rs.8  for  their  village  gods  ;  but  they  said  that  they  were  afraid  to 
part  with  them.  We  proposed  that  the  power  of  the  idols  should  be 
put  to  the  test ;  and  to  our  astonishment  they  consented.  The  head- 
man handed  a  large  club  to  Mr.  Mitchell,  for  the  purpose  of  striking 
them  ;  and  he  dealt  out  three  heavy  blows  upon  Hanuman.  His  lord- 
.  ship  received  them  with  great  meekness,  and  without  showing  the  least 
symptom  of  displeasure.  The  villagers  stood  aghast ;  but  they  im- 
mediately destroyed  their  convictions  by  alleging  that  our  virtue  gave 
us  a  great  power  over  the  gods,  which  they  could  never  exercise. 
Death,  they  said,  would  be  the  consequence  of  their  inflicting  a  blow. 
Thus  Satan  preserves  them  in  their  strong  delusions. 

"  JUNAR,  6th  January  1833. — We  arrived  in  the  oldest  city  of  the 
Dekhan  in  the  evening.  The  country  through  which  we  passed 
appeared  to  be  very  fertile.  We  at  first  took  up  our  abode  in  the 
Chawadi,  but  Mr.  Escombe  of  the  civil  service  kindly  invited  us  to  his 
house.  In  the  morning  I  had  a  long  debate  with  a  learned  Brahman. 
He  made  a  keen  but  very  unsuccessful  defence  of  his  cause.  All  the  sins 
of  the  gods  he  ascribed  to  Maya,  which  he  represented  as  the  produc- 
tion of  Brahma.  He  thus  laid  himself  open  to  the  charge  of  blasphemy, 
which  I  did  not  fail  to  urge  upon  him.  After  he  left  me  I  had  an 
interview  with  a  Musulman  Jagheerdar,  to  whom  I  presented  a  Persian 
Testament.  He  appeared  to  be  liberal  in  his  sentiments,  and  of  the 
Shia  sect. 

"MARA— INDIAN  PLAYERS,  5th  January. — We  found  the  village 
quite  crowded  with  people,  who  had  come  from  the  neighbourhood  to 
observe  the  tirus  of  a  Muhammadan  Peer  (saint).  We  could  scarcely 
get  any  place  in  which  we  could  pass  the  night.  At  length  we  got  our 
cot  placed  in  a  small  thatched  temple,  in  which  about  twenty-five 
natives  were  sitting.  We  preached  in  the  street  in  moonlight.  After 
we  had  lain  down  to  sleep  a  company  of  strolling  players  commenced 
operations  about  four  or  five  yards  from  us,  and  fully  in  our  view. 
The  actors  were  about  ten  in  number,  and  three  of  them  were  men 
•dressed  in  women's  clothes.  They  sang  a  great  number  of  songs,  using 
various  instruments  as  accompaniments  ;  and  they  acted  a  great  many 
characters.  Some  of  their  representations  were  licentious  in  the  ex- 
treme, and  some  of  them  appeared  to  afford  a  great  deal  of  amusement 
to  the  spectators  ;  one  of  them  showed  the  real  feeling  with  which 


1833.]  A  HINDOO  COMEDY.  157 

many  of  the  Brahmans  are  regarded.  A  Maratha  made  his  appearance 
at  the  gate  of  a  village  with  all  the  habiliments  of  a  Bhatta.  His  head 
was  shaven  and  shorn,  with  the  exception  of  the  Shendi.  In  his  hand 
he  carried  the  usual  priestly  staff  and  brazen  vessel.  His  Kamarband 
(waistcloth)  was  wrapt  round  the  upper  part  of  his  hand,  but  one  of 
his  arms  was  free.  On  his  head  was  the'  small  red  nightcap.  He 
strutted  about  with  an  air  of  great  importance  ;  and  he  seemed  irritated 
when  he  found  the  gate  of  the  village  shut.  He  demanded  admission, 
and  a  voice  from  within  was  heard,  Who  calls.  "  Who  calls,"  says  the 
priest,  "  I  am  Narayana  Bhatta  on  my  way  to  my  Yajamdn  (consti- 
tuents)." "  Your  constituents  have  given  me  no  intimation  of  your 
arrival,"  quoth  the  village  watchman.  "  Strange  ! "  said  the  Brahman, 
"  but  who  art  thou  ;"  "I  am  the  village  Mhar  "  was  quickly  responded. 
The  Bhatta  hugged  up  his  shoulders,  and  turned  up  his  nose  in  the 
expression  of  consummate  contempt.  Some  of  the  Yajaman  made  their 
appearance,  and  forth  came  shlokas  (verses)  in  abundance.  They  consisted 
of  nonsensical  words  with  Sanscrit  terminations  ;  they  were  delivered 
with  an  air  of  indescribable  conceit ;  and  the  most  absurd  interpreta- 
tion was  made  of  them.  The  people  listened  with  apparent  gravity  ; 
but  the  Bhatta  had  no  sooner  collected  the  offerings  presented  to  him, 
and  taken  his  departure,  than  they  began  to  ridicule  him.  The  sport 
was  concluded  at  the  very  genteel  hour  of  twenty  minutes  past  three 
on  the  following  morning,  when  the  villagers,  most  of  whom  were 
Hindoos,  set  out  for  their  homes. 

"  KALYAN,  9th  January. — We  passed  through  Kahata  on  our  way 
to  Kallian.  The  villagers  assembled  in  considerable  numbers  to  hear 
the  Gospel ;  but  we  remarked  that  the  facilities  for  collecting  them  are 
not  so  great  in  the  Konkan  as  in  the  Dekhan.  In  the  former  province 
the  villages  are  all  enclosed  within  walls,  and  their  houses  are  not  so 
scattered  as  those  in  the  villages  below  the  Ghat.  In  the  Dekhan, 
moreover,  there  is  generally  an  open  space  near  one  of  the  gates  where 
all  business  is  transacted,  and  where  we  can  always  find  auditors  without 
much  trouble,  and  to  which  there  is  nothing  correspondent  in  the 
Konkan.  The  villages  on  the  sea-coast,  however,  have  one  advantage. 
They  are  on  the  whole  more  thriving  and  populous." 

Jalna,  where  for  the  hour  the  military  authorities  opposed 
Mr.  Wilson's  benevolent  work  even  more  effectually  than  the 
Brahmans  had  done  in  the  previous  year  at  Nasik,  has,  like 
that  station,  since  become  the  scene  of  the  very  successful 


158  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSOX.  [1833 

mission  conducted  by  the  Eev.  Narayan  Sheshadri,  one  of 
the  Mission  converts.  This  tour  deserves  notice  on  its 
European  side.  Chaplains,  still  too  few  for  the  wants  of  the 
troops,  or  so  employed  that  the  troops  are  not  cared  for  first, 
were  fewer  still  before  the  Charter  of  1833  enlarged  the 
ecclesiastical  establishment.  A  sacerdotal  conflict  between 
the  Metropolitan  of  Calcutta  and  the  Government  of  India 
first  led  Lord  William  Bentinck  to  decide,  as  had  been  done 
in  1813,  that  the  chaplains  are  the  officials  of  Government, 
just  as  the  churches  are  its  property.  The  English  in  India 
were  too  few,  and  heathenism  was  too  strong  for  sectarian 
bigotry  to  have  then  shown  itself.  In  the  time  of  Claudius 
Buchanan,  the  author  of  the  ecclesiastical  establishment,  and 
till  the  arrival  of  Bishop  Middleton  and  Dr.  Bryce  in  Calcutta, 
such  a  spirit  was  unknown.  Hence  Mr.  Wilson  preached  in 
the  Jalna  Church,  and  in  the  same  service  the  chaplain  from 
Secunderabad  read  prayers  previous  .  to  the  sermon.  The 
Presbyterian's  comment  is — "This  was  very  liberal."  But 
when,  soon  after,  the  Bishop,  Daniel  Wilson,  made  his  first 
metropolitan  tour  after  his  defeat  by  Lord  William  Bentinck, 
he  forbade  this  "  irregularity"  in  a  general  circular  to  the 
chaplains.  Long  after,  his  noble  successor,  Bishop  Cotton, 
arranged  with  Government  that  the  ecclesiastical  buildings 
of  the  State  should  be  used,  when  necessary,  for  Presbyterian 
_as  well  as  Episcopalian  services. 

Having  thus  surveyed  the  Marathee-speaking  country 
north-west  to  Nasik  and  south-west  to  Poona,  and  thence 
into  the  native  State  of  the  Muhammadan  Mzam  of  Hydera- 
bad, Mr.  Wilson  gave  up  the  cold  season  of  1833-34  to  the 
southern  Maratha  country  and  the  adjoining  settlement  of 
the  Portuguese  at  Goa.  His  colleague,  the  Eev.  James 
Mitchell,  was  again  his  companion.  A  sea  passage  of  fifteen 
hours  took  them  to  the  old  scenes  at  Hurnee,  and  thence  to 
the  southern  boundary  of  the  former  Konkan  mission.  At 


1833.]  IITNDOOISM  BEIXG  UNDEKMINED.  159 

the  shrine  of  the  elepharit-god  Gunesh,  endowed  with  £120 
a  year,  paid  at  that  time  through  the  British  Government,  an 
incident  occurred  which  is  a  parallel  to  Cicero's  remark  on 
the  two  Augurs.  An  old  Brahman,  who  had  come  from 
Satara  to  see  the  god,  was  reproved  because,  at  the  close  of  a 
meal  and  before  he  had  performed  ablution,  he  had  happened 
to  touch  one  of  the  officiating  priests.  The  old  man  imme- 
diately retorted,  "Hullo,  my  religious  friend,  you  have  for- 
gotten to  wipe  the  sandal- wood  from  your  forehead" — in 
other  words,  you  have  either  forgotten  to-day  to  purify  your- 
self or  to  remove  the  sign  of  your  uncleanness.  The  priest 
confessed  that  he  stood  corrected,  and  he  gave  a  hypocritical 
laugh.  He  had  pretended  holiness  to  gain  the  respect  of  the 
stranger  Brahman.  At  a  village  farther  south,  when  passing 
the  tombs  usually  erected  over  widows  who  have  burned 
with  their  dead  husbands,  Mr.  Wilson  expressed  his  feelings 
to  a  Brahman,  who  replied  that  he  approved  of  Suttee,  but 
did  not  find  fault  with  the  British.  Government  for  abolishing 
it.  To  him,  as  to  the  mass  of  Hindoos,  the  order  of  an  abso- 
lute Government  was  sufficient  to  alter  or  prohibit  even  a 
religious  rite,  when  that  was  contrary  to  natural  religion  or 
morality ;  just  as  the  teaching  of  an  absolute  priesthood  had, 
by  a  previous  generation,  been  accepted  as  an  authority  for 
burning  widows  who,  if  childless,  otherwise  enjoyed  the  life- 
rent  of  their  husbands'  estates.  The  natural  spring  at  this 
shrine  was  believed  to  come,  underground,  from  the  Ganges, 
hundreds  of  miles  to  the  north,  wherefore  Mr.  Wilson  read  to 
the  worshippers  notes  which  he  had  taken  of  the  lectures  on 
hydrography  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  His  explana- 
tion was  confirmed  by  a  young  English-speaking  Hindoo, 
whom  he  had  known  in  Bombay,  and  who  had  come  from  a 
distance  of  ten  miles  to  pay  his  respects  to  the  missionary. 
Thus  already,  in  four  years,  the  merely  scientific  truth  radi- 
ating out  from  Bombay,  through  English,  into  the  jungles 


160  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1833. 

of  Maharashtra,  and  the  notes  of  an  Edinburgh  lecture-room 
were  used  to  overthrow  Gunesh  with  the  aid  of  an  educated 
Hindoo.  Farther  on  Mr.  Wilson  saved  from  the  infamy  of 
their  lives,  in  future,  a  widow  and  two  daughters  who  asked 
alms  for  the  temple  to  which  they  were  attache'd,  by  arranging 
to  send  them  to  a  destitute  girls'  school  which  he  had  opened 
in  Bombay.  They  proved  in  after  years  to  be  devoted 
Christians. 

The  connection  between  the  Government  and  idolatry 
was  found  at  almost  every  step.  At  Kampta  the  town-clerk, 
a  learned  Brahman,  "  told  us  that  the  whole  village  belonged 
to  Bhagwati  (an  idol),  and  that  the  English  Government  was 
so  kind  as  to  collect  and  pay  over  the  revenue  to  the  idol.  I 
expressed  my  deep  regret  to  him  that,  in  making  the  settle- 
ment of  the  country,  the  Company's  servants  had  fallen  into 
the  error  and  sin  of  associating  themselves  with  superstition ; 
and  informed  him  that  many  of  them  were  aware  of  the  evil, 
and  that  it  would  probably  soon  be  rectified.  There  is 
scarcely  a  temple  in  this  part  of  the  country  which  has  not  an 
allowance  from  the  revenue.  The  Mahalkaree  of  Kharipatan 
showed  me  a  list  of  the  sums  granted  in  his  district.  I  was 
perfectly  thunderstruck  on  reading  it.  Even  temples  that  are 
almost  forsaken  by  the  natives  are  not  overlooked.  Ten  or 
twelve  of  this  description  had  allowance  of  five  or  six  rupees 
per  annum.  I  asked  how  these  sums  were  expended.  '  In 
buying  light  for  the  god/  was  his  reply.  '  The  allowance,'  he 
added,  '  is  charitable  ;  many  Brahinans,  also,  have  grants.'  I 
trust  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  all  these  sums  will 
be  profitably  employed  in  promoting  the  education  of  the 
people." 

That  is  the  sort  of  disestablishment  which  the  British 
Government,  as  such,  can  do  little  directly  to  bring  about  as 
the  crowning  result  of  its  subsequent  efforts  to  leave  all  man- 
agement of  the  shrines  to  the  worshippers,  and  all  disputes 


1834.]  GOA  AND  CLAUDIUS  BUCHANAN.  161 

about  the  property  to  the  ordinary  civil  courts.  But  the  time 
is  not  so  hopelessly  distant  as  may  appear  at  first,  when  Mr. 
Wilson's  foresight  may  be  justified,  by  the  educated  natives 
themselves  insisting  on  saving  from  the  fraudulent  greed  of 
their  priests  the  enormous  endowments  intended  in  many 
cases  to  act  as  a  poor-law,  and  transferring  them  to  the  edu- 
cation of  their  children,  for  which  they  are  now  compelled  to 
pay  a  cess  on  the  land-tax. 

At  Vingorla,  a  port  to  which  the  frequent  famines  have 
led  Government  to  direct  their  attention  recently  as  likely  to 
be  the  best  on  the  Western  coast,  next  to  Bombay  itself,  for 
the  import  or  export  of  grain,  Mr.  Wilson  and  his  companion 
took  boat  again  for  Teracol,  the  first  village  belonging  to  the 
Portuguese.  Just  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  passed  since,  in 
1808,  Goa,  the  capital  of  all  that  was  left  of  the  once  promis- 
ing empire  of  Vasco  de  Gama  and  Albuquerque,  which 
Camoens  had  sung  in  his  Lusiad,  had  been  visited  by  a 
Christian  ecclesiastic  whom,  in  many  respects,  John  Wilson 
closely  resembled.  Claudius  Buchanan  was  the  son  of  an 
elder  of  the  Kirk,  who  was  the  parish  schoolmaster  of  Cam- 
buslang  during  Whitefield's  preaching.  He  was  educated  at 
Glasgow  University,  was  for  some  time  tutor  in  the  old  Scot- 
tish family  of  the  Campbells  of  Dunstaffnage,  and  was  about 
to  become  a  preacher  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  when,  fired 
by  the  experience  of  Goldsmith,  he  determined  first  to  see  the 
world  of  Europe.  His  wanderings  ended  in  the  completion  of 
his  studies  at  Cambridge  under  Isaac  Milner,  whence  the  first 
of  the  Clapham  men,  Mr.  Henry  Thornton,  sent  him  out  to 
Calcutta  as  a  Company's  chaplain  in  1*796.  There  his  studies, 
his  travels,  and  his  researches  soon  marked  him  out  to  Lord 
Wellesley  and  Lord  Minto  as  an  adviser  on  all  educational, 
philanthropic,  and  scholarly  questions.  His  writings  so  influ- 
enced public  opinion  in  England,  that  Parliament  in  1813 
created  the  ecclesiastical  establishment  which  Charles  Grant 

M 


162  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

and  Wilberforce,  though  aided  by  Pitt  and  Dundas,  had  failed 
to  force  on  the  East  India  Company  in  the  Charter  of  1793  ; 
that  steps  were  taken  to  prohibit  self-immolation  under  the 
car  of  Jugganath  and  the  pilgrim-tax  ;  and  that  the  Inquisi- 
tion was  for  ever  abolished  in  Portuguese  India  in  1812.  The 
same  evangelical  charity,  the  same  scholarly  research,  the  same 
intellectual  breadth  of  view,  the  same  zeal  for  the  propagation 
of  Christian  truth  in  the  East,  marked  the  two  Scotsmen,  the 
one  Episcopalian  the  other  Presbyterian.  Mr.  Wilson  does 
not  fail  to  note  in  the  Journal  of  his  visit  to  Goa,  that  it  was 
"  the  first  since  the  days  of  Claudius  Buchanan  expressly  made 
for  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures  and  other  missionary 
operations."  Dr.  Buchanan's  visit  to  Goa  was  memorable  from 
his  intercourse  with  Josephus  a  Doloribus,  one  of  the  Grand 
Inquisitors,  whose  admissions  are  most  important  as  to  the 
fairness  of  the  account  of  his  two  years'  sufferings  under  the 
order  of  the  tribunal  by  the  French  adventurer  and  physician 
Dellon  in  1673-5.1  In  1808  there  were  upwards  of  three 
thousand  priests  belonging  to  Goa,  and  those  whom  Dr.  Buch- 
anan saw  declared  they  would  gladly  receive  copies  of  the 
Latin  and  Portuguese  Yulgate  from  the  hands  of  the  English 
nation. 

Mr.  Wilson  had  one  advantage  during  his  visit  in  1834. 
The  recent  political  changes  in  the  mother  country,  and  the 
absence  of  the  Archbishop,  made  the  authorities  and  priests 
more  liberal  in  their  intercourse  with  him. 

"  TERACOL,  28th  Jan.  1834. — We  took  an  early  opportunity  of  visit- 
ing the  fort.  It  is  in  charge  of  an  old  officer,  Captain  de  Silva.  He  has 
been  44  years  in  India,  and  never  expects  to  return  to  Portugal,  which 
he  left  when  he  was  14  years  old.  We  conversed  with  him  about  the 
political  aifairs  of  Portugal  and  other  subjects.  He  told  us  that  Donna 
Maria  had  been  proclaimed  in  all  the  Goanese  territories  about  two 
weeks  ago,  and  gave  us  some  of  the  orders  of  the  day  to  read.  He 

1  Relation  de  I 'Inquisition  de  Goa ;  a  Amsterdam,  1719  ;  also,  Christian 
Researches  in  Asia,  by  the  Rev.  Claudius  Buchanan,  D.D. 


1834.]  THE  ROMISH  CLERGY  OF  GOA.  163 

represented  the  whole  province  as  in  a  state  of  perfect  quietness.     I 
offered  a  Portuguese  Bible  to  him.     He  said  that  almost  the  only  book 
which  he  read  was  a  short  treatise  on  the  sufferings    of    Christ    by 
D' Almeida  ;  but  he  intimated  his  readiness  to  accept  a  Bible,  provided 
his  padre  would  allow  him.     The  padre  was  sent  for.     I  held  a  long 
conversation  with  him  in  Latin.     He  granted  permission  to  the  Captain 
to  receive  the  Bible,  and  on  my  offering  one  to  himself,  he  said,  Habeo 
tibi  gratias.      He  gave  me  an  account  of   the  state  of    the  Komish 
Church  in  the  territories  of  Goa,  and  in  return  I  described  to  him 
the  state  and  principles  of  the  Churches  of  Scotland  and  England.     He 
showed  us  his  chapel,  remarking  parva  est.     Pointing  to  the  different 
figures  near  the  altar,  he  denominated  them  imago  Salvatoris,  imago 
mirificce  Virginis,  imago  Sancti  Antonii,  etc.     The  following  conversation 
then  took  place.      J.  W.    Usus  imaginum  in  ecclesia   est  contra  Dei 
secundum  mandamentum.     Padre.  In  Novo  Testamento  imaginum  usus 
permittitur.     J.  W.  In  quo  loco  permissio  invenitur  ?     P.  Nescio,  sed 
hoc  scio,  Ecclesia  Romano,  permittit.     J.  W.  Eclesia  Romana  permittit, 
et   Deus   interdixit.      P.  Idolatria  non   est.       J.  W.  Sic  aiunt  Brach- 
manes.     We  parted  on  good  terms,  the  Padre  promising  to  call  upon  us 
in  the  evening.     He  kept  his  word.     In  the  course  of  our  walk  I  tried 
to  ascertain  his  theological  sentiments.     He  said  that  he  believed  in 
the  doctrine  of  predestination  ante  merita  cognita,  agreeably  to  the 
principles  of  Augustine,     I  expressed  my  accordance  with  his  views. 
During  our  conversation  on  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  he  said,  In  hac 
civitate  Pauci  Presbyteri   muliebribus  furtive   utuntur.      I   urged  his 
admission  as  a  proof  of  the  inexpediency  of  the  vow  to  observe  celibacy 
made  by  all  the  Eomish  clergy.     Few  or  none  of  the  priests,  he  ob- 
served, know  either  Greek  or  Hebrew.      I  referred  to  the  Vulgate 
translation  made  by  St.  Jerome  as  a  proof  that  the  Romish  Church  in 
the  days  of  old  was  not  averse  to  the  use  of  the  Scriptures  in  the 
language  best  understood  by  the  people.     He  had  not  formerly  adverted 
to  this  circumstance  ;  and  admitted  that  as  the  lingua  Latino,  nunc 
Romce  non  in  usu  est,  an  Italian  translation  should  be  made  for  that 
place.     We  compared  the  proceedings  of  Romish  and  Protestant  mission- 
aries.    I  admitted  the  learning  and  piety  of  Francis  Xavier.     He  con- 
demned the  use  of  all  violence  in  the  propagation  of  Christianity,  and 
lamented  rash  admissions  into  the  visible  Church.     He  expressed  his 
surprise  at  the  audiences  with  which  we  are  favoured,  and  remarked, 
'  Gentiles  in  hac  regione  non  audiunt!    I  advised  him  to  study  their 
languages,  and  to  preach  the  pure  doctrines  of  Christianity. 

"  Late  in  the  evening,  when  the  padre  had  retired  to  the  fort,  about 


164  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

twenty  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  village  came  to  our  lodgings.  We 
examined  and  addressed  them  in  Marathee,  which  they  speak  in  rather 
a  corrupted  form.  We  gave  a  few  Portuguese  tracts  and  two  Testa- 
ments to  three  or  four  of  them  who  could  read  them.  One  of  them 
brought  a  large  folio  volume,  which  he  called  a  Purana,  to  show  to  us. 
It  was  of  Marathee  Prakrita,  but  written  in  the  Roman  character.  It 
contained  paraphrases  of  several  of  the  discourses  of  the  apostles, 
extracts  from  the  Bible,  notes  on  church  history,  refutations  of  Hindoo- 
ism,  etc.  It  is  a  work  of  immense  labour,  and  it  is  creditable  to  the 
learning  and  patience,  if  not  to  the  piety  of  some  olden  missionary.  The 
owner  said  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  'reading  it,  in  the  Brahmanical 
style,  to  assemblies  at  his  door." 

Was  this  the  work  of  the  Jesuit  Stephens,  the  first 
Englishman  whom  we  know  to  have  landed  in  India  five 
years  after  Francis  Xavier's  death  in  October  1579,  whose 
letter  to  his  father,  a  merchant  of  London,  is  found  in 
Hakluyt  ?  He  published  a  Konkanee  Grammar,  a  History 
of  Christ,  and  an  Account  of  Christian  Doctrine.  The  first  is 
in  the  India  Office  Library,  but  Professor  Monier  Williams 
states  that  he  has  never  met  with  the  other  two.1  The 
Madura  Jesuit,  Eobert  de  Nobili's  "Fifth  Veda,"  which 
the  French  called  L'Ezour  V^dam,  so  far  deceived  Voltaire 
that  he  appealed  to  it  as  a  proof  of  the  superiority  of 
Hindooism  to  Christianity !  Taking  again  to  the  boat,  Mr. 
Wilson  spent  the  time  on  the  way  southward  to  Goa  in 
reading  the  Latin  Bible  "  for  the  sake  of  facility  in  conver- 
sation," and  Cotineau's  Historical  Sketch  of  Goa. 

"29th  January  1834. — We  lay  at  the  mouth  of  the. Goa  river,  or 
rather  firth,  for  about  half-an-hour,  till  we  obtained  permission  to  go 
up  to  Pangim,  or  New  Goa.  The  aspect  of  the  country,  from  the 
appearance  of  the  villages,  churches,  and  forts,  is  unlike  anything  which 
I  have  seen  in  India.  Our  landing  at  Pangim  reminded  me  much  of 
Cape  Town.  The  houses  are,  generally  speaking,  very  substantial,  and 
painted  white.  Many  have  two  stories,  and  united  conical  and  lofty 
roofs  for  every  apartment  in  the  upper  story.  There  was  only  a  single 
ship,  and  a  few  patimars  in  the  harbour.  The  Governor,  or  Vice-rey, 

1  The  Contemporary  Review  for  April  1878,  page  31. 


1834.]  MORALITY  AND  LIFE  IN  GOA.  165 

who  had  been  at  the  Cathedral  church  of  Goa  swearing  allegiance  to 
Donna  Maria,  drove  past  us,  on  our  landing,  in  a  very  neat  but  humble 
carriage.  He  does  not  maintain  much  style,  and  his  pay  is  only 
18,000  rupees  per  annum,  which  are,  however,  worth  more  than  double 
that  sum  in  Bombay.  A  considerable  number  of  the  persons  standing 
at  the  beach  were  dressed  in  the  European  style.  We  took  up  our 
abode  in  an  empty  house,  pointed  out  to  us  by  a  Hindoo  broker,  to 
whom  I  had  a  note  of  introduction  from  Sir  Eoger  de  Faria.  We 
found  ourselves  very  comfortable,  and  we  felt  grateful  to  God  for 
bringing  us  thus  far  on  our  journey  in  safety. 

"  We  had  not  been  seated  for  many  minutes  when  a  great  number 
of  persons  came  to  us  to  offer  their  services.  Some  of  the  proposals 
which  were  made  to  us  were  calculated  to  impress  us  with  very  un- 
favourable ideas  of  the  morality  of  the  place,  and  with  the  behaviour 
of  our  countrymen  who  come  to  visit  it.  We  met  them  with  suitable 
indignation  and  reproof. 

"  There  are  few  Europeans  in  the  colony.  Most  of  those  who  are 
here  are  connected  with  the  army,  which  is  about  4000  strong.  The 
Governor  is  friendly  to  the  Portuguese  constitution.  He  has  not  been 
much  interfered  with  by  the  home  authorities  ;  and  he  manages  matters 
at  Goa  in  a  manner  which  is  satisfactory  to  the  inhabitants.  Several 
public  buildings  and  roads  are  in  the  course  of  being  constructed  under 
his  auspices.  The  secretary  to  government  is  well  reported  of,  and  is 
particularly  attentive  to  the  English  who  come  to  Goa.  The  priests  of 
all  descriptions  who  are  to  be  found  in  the  colony  amount  to  1000. 
The  total  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  population  is  estimated  at  about 
200,000. 

"  31  st  January  1 834. — We  walked  round  the  greater  part  of  Pangim 
in  the  morning.  As  soon  as  we  had  taken  breakfast,  great  numbers  of 
people  came  to  receive  copies  of  the  Portuguese  Scriptures.  The  house 
was  crowded  with  them  for  a  considerable  time.  Mr.  Mitchell  and 
Manuel  supplied  the  applicants,  as  far  as  our  stock  would  permit. 
When  they  were  engaged  in  this  work  for  several  hours,  I  was  employed 
in  conversing  in  Latin  with  the  priests  who  called  upon  us.  One  of  them, 
a  quaternarian  of  the  Cathederal  Church  of  Goa,  introduced  himself  to 
me  by  telling  me  that  he  was  much  interested  in  a  book,  Cui  Titulus  est 
Historia  Religionis  Reformats  in  Anglia,  auctore  Gulielmo  Cobbett.  I  gave 
him  a  brief  character  of  it  by  declaring,  Cobbettii  historia  mendaciis 
plena  est,  and  stated  my  opinion  of  the  life  of  its  author.  He  was 
neither  prepared  to  admit  nor  controvert  my  statements. 

"  I  obtained  a  good  deal  of  information  from  this  person  respecting 


166  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

the  state  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Goa.  In  the  colleges  connected 
with  the  convents  many  young  men  are  educated  for  the  ministry. 
The  principal  ecclesiastical  seminary,  however,  is  in  the  small  island 
of  Chorao,  to  the  north  of  Goa.  The  only  language  which  is  taught 
in  them  is  Latin.  All  the  prelections  are  given  in  this  language,  but 
they  are  explained  in  Portuguese.  They  are  partly  original  and  partly 
collected  from  various  authors.  Logic,  metaphysics,  mathematics  (to  a 
small  extent),  ecclesiastical  history,  and  dogmatic  and  didactic  theology 
and  canon  law,  are  the  branches  taught.  The  writings  of  some  of  the 
Fathers  are  perused.  The  Professors  are,  with  few  exceptions,  natives 
of  the  country.  There  are  several  elementary  schools  in  which  Latin 
is  taught  in  several  parts  of  the  Estado.  One  of  the  most  respectable 
of  these  is  conducted  by  a  presbyter  in  Pangim.  He  stated  that  elemen- 
tary books  are  with  great  difficulty  procured  at  present. 

"  The  two  parish  priests  of  Pangim  held  a  discussion  with  me  similar 
to  that  to  which  I  have  now  alluded.  They,  like  the  other  priests,  were 
anxious  to  procure  books.  We  gave  them,  as  to  all  the  priests  with 
whom  we  have  had  intercourse,  a  Portuguese  Bible,  a  Latin  Bible 
and  New  Testament.  I  offered  them  a  copy  of  Calvini  Institutiones. 
Non  licet  nobis  libros  heretico  legere,  was  the  reply.  Joannes  Calvinus 
vir  doctus  et  pius  fuit ;  ejus  opera  legere  vos  decet,  was  my  answer.  The 
merits  of  the  Reformation  were  shortly  discussed.  The  work  of  the 
Genevese  reformer  was  ultimately  .carried  away  by  those  to  whom  it 
was  proffered.  I  had  a  conversation  on  personal  religion  with  a  young 
lad  of  twenty,  who  is  at  present  studying  canonical  law.  He  belongs 
to  the  province  of  Bardes.  I  was  much  interested  in  him.  He  says 
that  his  views  of  the  doctrine  of  predestination  were  very  confused.  I 
tried  to  remove  his  difficulties.  He  has  lately  obtained  the  quatuor 
minores  ordines  of  the  Romish  Church 

"  When  the  priests  left  us,  we  were  visited  by  several  gentlemen 
from  Portugal.  They  were  all  exiles  on  account  of  their  attachment  to 
the  Constitution.  They  were  anxious  to  learn  our  views  about  the  pro- 
bable success  of  the  Liberal  cause.  We  expressed  the  hope  to  them 
that  they  would  see  better  days.  We  gave  them  copies  of  the  .Bible  in 
Portuguese  and  French,  and  a  few  tracts,  which  they  gladly  received. 
I  asked  one  of  them,  Senhor  Capella,  to  revise  my  Portuguese  cate- 
chism, which  he  very  readily  consented  to  do.  He  offered  to  accom- 
pany us  to  Old  Goa,  and  we  accepted  of  his  proposal. 

"  1st  February. — The  first  sight  of  Goa  is  magnificent,  although  it  is  at 
once  evident  that  nothing  remains  but  the  churches  and  some  other 
public  buildings.  The  walls  of  the  city  are  now  almost  entirely 


1834.]  OLD  GOA. AND  ITS  CHURCHES.  167 

destroyed  ;  but,  like  Dr.  Claudius  Buchanan,  we  entered  the  city  by 
the  palace  gate,  over  which  is  the  statue  of  Vasco  de  Gama,  the  dis- 
coverer of  the  passage  by  the  Cape,  and  one  of  the  first  '  Vice-reys '  of 
India.  The  hero  stands  aloft,  in  vestibus  quce  decent  tempora  antiqua. 

"  The  first  building  which  we  visited  was  the  Church  of  the  Palace. 
It  is  an  exact  model  of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome.  It  is  arched  in  the  roof.  Its 
principal  altar  is  decorated  in  a  style  surpassing  anything  which  I  had 
formerly  seen.  Its  convent  and  cloisters  are  small.  It  belongs  to  the 
Theatins  or  order  of  St.  Cajetan,  who  were  instituted  in  Italy  by 
St.  Cajetan  of  Thiena,  and  by  John  Caraffa  (Pope  Paul  the  Fourth), 
Bishop  of  Theato.  They  were  established  in  Goa  in  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  Italian  founders  were  soon  joined  by  many 
of  the  natives.  There  are  at  present  no  Europeans  in  the  convent. 
No  natives  but  those  of  Brahmanical  descent  are  admitted.  We  saw 
two  of  the  friars  seated  in  confessionals  in  the  church.  They  were 
lending  ear  respectively  to  a  woman,  and  muttering  forgiveness. 
Several  other  persons  of  the  female  sex  were  prostrating  themselves  in 
the  church,  and  waiting  the  appointed  time  of  disburdening  their  con- 
sciences. The  Cajetans  are  the  most  renowned  confessors  in  the  colony. 
They  live  almost  entirely  on  the  offerings  of  the  superstitious.  They 
seldom  exceed  fifteen  in  number,  and,  owing  to  the  unhealthiness  of 
their  situation,  are  short-lived. 

"  In  passing  from  St.  Cajetan's  to  the  cathedral,  we  saw  the  ruins, 
or  rather  the  site,  of  the  Inquisition,  which  was  founded  in  1560,  and 
the  court  of  which  was  ordered  to  be  suppressed  in  1812.  The  repre- 
sentations of  the  British  were  the  cause  of  its  destruction. 

"  I  cordially  assent  to  the  only  remark  which  Dr.  Buchanan  makes 
on  the  metropolitan  church — '  It  is  worthy  of  one  of  the  principal  cities 
of  Europe.'  There  is  nothing  very  remarkable  in  its  exterior  unless 
the  plainness  of  the  building,  but  it  is  no  sooner  entered  than  it  strikes 
the  spectator.  To  the  top  of  the  vault  it  is  nearly  40  feet  high,  and 
the  body  of  the  church  is  about  200  feet  long  and  80  broad,  exclusive 
of  a  row  of  chapels  on  each  side.  The  principal  altar  is  adorned  with 
images,  and  gilt  pillars  and  pilasters.  There  are  fourteen  minor  altars 
in  rows  along  the  sides  of  the  church.  There  are  few  seats  in  it,  as 
is  the  case  in  all  the  Roman  Catholic  churches  in  India.  The  windows 
give  light  through  small  panes  of  mother  of  pearl.  Divine  service  is 
performed  twice  a  day  in  the  cathedral.  We  found  about  twenty-four 
priests  in  two  rows  united  in  repeating  the  mass.  The  clergy  of  the 
church  consist  of  an  archbishop  (there  is  none  at  present),  a  dean, 
cantor  maximus,  treasurers,  archdeacon,  scholastic,  ten  canons  or  pre- 


168  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

bendaries,  four  semi-prebendaries,  two  quaternarians,  twelve  priests' 
chaplains,  and  a  variety  of  assistants.  The  total  stipendiary  revenue 
of  the  cathedral  is  only  Rs.15,582  per  annum.  Offerings  and  fees  form 
the  other  sources  of  the  emoluments  of  the  clergy.  From  the  manner 
in  which  they  congregate  together,  they  are  saved  from  many  expenses 
which  would  otherwise  devolve  upon  them.  The  dean  is  at  present 
their  superior.  The  total  number  of  communicants  at  Easter  is  stated 
at  110.  Can  anything  be  more  absurd  than  the  maintenance  of  this 
establishment  on  its  present  scale,  when  there  are  almost  none  to 
profit  by  it  ? 

"We  proceeded  to  the  Aljuva,  or  the  bishop's  prison,  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  breakfast.  The  building  is  not  in  a  state  of  great 
repair.  It  is  used  for  the  purpose  of  incarcerating  refractory  and 
naughty  priests.  As  its  services  are  not  at  present  much  demanded, 
part  of  it  is  appropriated  to  civil  purposes.  When,  after  breakfast,  we 
were  engaged  in  social  worship,  the  quaternarian,  whom  I  have  already 
mentioned,  joined  us.  He  listened  to  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
but  he  did  not  kneel  with  us  at  prayer.  Exercitatio  spiritualis  est,  he 
observed,  however,  when  we  had  concluded.  Our  conversation  turned 
upon  several  theological  points,  and  particularly  upon  Purgatory  and 
Indulgences.  The  priests  discussed  the  points  at  issue  with  temper 
and  ability. 

"  We  went  from  the  Aljuva  to  the  Monastery  of  St.  Monica.  It  is 
the  only  nunnery  in  Goa,  and  was  founded  by  the  infamous  Dom  Fre" 
Alexo  de  Menezes,  archbishop  of  Goa,  about  the  year  1600,  and  by 
him  dedicated  to  the  mother  of  Augustine.  The  exterior  of  the 
building  has  nothing  remarkable  about  it.  To  the  cloister  we  could 
of  course  have  no  access.  We  were  directed  to  the  public  hall.  We 
found  the  abbess  and  prioress  seated  in  a  room  adjoining  us  opposite 
an  iron  grating,  where  alone  they  could  have  communication  with  us. 
They  were  both  Europeans,  and  very  neatly  dressed  in  white,  and 
attended  by  two  or  three  female  servants.  They  very  readily  entered 
into  conversation  with  us.  The  abbess  entered  the  convent  when  she 
was  fifteen  years'  old,  and  has  resided  within  its  walls  for  forty-four 
years.  The  prioress  entered  it  in  1818.  She  blushed  when  Sr. 
Capella  jokingly  told  her  that,  amidst  the  political  changes  which  are 
taking  place,  she  would  be  permitted  to  leave  it  and  to  marry.  The 
abbess  told  us  that,  including  novices,  there  are  thirty  nuns  in  the 
establishment  at  present.  Europeans  pay  Us.  1000,  and  natives  double 
that  sum,  on  their  entrance.  The  funds  of  the  institution  are  much 
reduced  from  the  loss  of  its  estates.  It  receives  Rs.1000  per  annum 


1834.]  OLD  GOA  AND  THE  AUGUSTINIAN  FRIARS.  169 

from  the  Government.  The  nuns  engage  in  making  rosaries,  in 
knitting,  and  the  preparation  of  sweetmeats  and  preserves.  We  bought 
several  articles  from  them.  When  we  offered  them  a  Portuguese  New 
Testament,  the  abbess  said  that  she  could  not  take  upon  herself  the 
responsibility  of  accepting  it.  The  prioress,  however,  seized  it  besides 
several  tracts  with  joy,  kissed  it,  and  said  that  she  would  always  pray 
for  us. 

"  Precisely  at  two  we  saw  the  doors  of  the  Augustinian  Convent 
thrown  open.  We  immediately  repaired  to  it.  The  provincial,  to 
whom  we  had  a  letter  of  introduction,  was  absent,  but  he  had  left 
orders  for  our  reception.  The  prefect  of  the  Augustinian  College,  and 
the  prior  Fre  Jose",  oifered  to  show  us  all  the  buildings,  which  are 
nearly  as  extensive  as  those  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  'Few 
cities  in  Europe,'  says  M.  Cotineau,  '  can  boast  of  a  finer  edifice  of  the 
kind  ;  the  cloisters,  pillars,  galleries,  halls,  and  cells,  are  all  most 
beautiful.'  What  struck  me  most  was  the  display  of  portraits  of  the 
martyr  missionaries  of  the  order.  Many  of  them  are  well  executed, 
and  represent  the  friars  in  the  attitude  of  death.  I  could  not  but 
think  with  admiration  of  their  devotedness,  and  wish  that  more  of  it 
were  exhibited  among  Protestants.  The  view  from  the  turrets  is 
magnificent.  We  stood  almost  entranced  on  first  coming  into  contact 
with  it.  We  examined  the  library  of  the  college.  The  books  are  fast 
going  to  decay.  They  do  not  amount,  I  should  think,  to  more  than 
1500.  Many  of  them  are  very  old  and  valuable.  I  noticed  most  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  historians  referred  to  by  Mosheim.  I 
heard  the  youths  of  the  noviciate  of  the  college  read  a  little  Latin,  and 
put  a  few  questions  to  them.  A  European  monk  followed  us  with  a 
very  anxious  eye.  He  evidently  wished  to  make  some  communi- 
cation to  us.  We  both  felt  great  compassion  for  him.  The  superior 
of  the  college  was  very  free  in  his  communications.  He  was  much 
pleased  to  find  our  pronunciation  of  Latin  so  much  like  his  own.  I 
endeavoured  to  improve  the  time  we  were  with  him  by  making  suitable 
reflections  on  what  passed  before  us.  I  gave  him  a  Portuguese  Bible, 
and  left  some  books  for  the  provincial  and  prior,  presented  by  Mr. 
J.  Wolff  and  Mr.  Farish.  Among  them  was  a  copy  of  Keith  on  Pro- 
phecy. May  the  perusal  of  them  be  abundantly  blessed  !  It  was  in 
the  cloisters  of  an  Augustinian  convent  that  the  spark  of  piety  was  first 
kindled  in  Martin  Luther. 

"The  Augustinians  (twelve  in  number)  came  first  to  Goa  in  1572. 
They  have  a  yearly  income  of  Rs.15,000,  independently  of  an  allowance 
of  Rs.  15  00  made  by  the  Goa  Government.  They  have  several  missions 


170  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

in  the  East  under  their  care.  Their  vestments  are  white.  They  were 
originally  black,  but  were  changed  on  account  of  the  defection  of  the 
German  Reformer,  of  whom  his  friends  were  greatly  ashamed.  They 
are  the  most  respectable  monks  in  the  Catholic  Church.  Leaving  the 
Augustinians,  we  proceeded  to  the  church  of  Bom  Jesus.  It  is  built 
in  the  form  of  a  cross.  Though  it  is  a  noble  edifice  we  scarcely 
surveyed  it  at  all.  I  hastened  to  the  shrine  of  the  celebrated  Francis 
Xavier,  of  which  I  had  heard  much.  It  surpassed  all  my  expectations, 
and  certainly  excels  anything  of  the  kind  which  I  had  before  seen.  It 
is  of  copper,  richly  gilt  and  ornamented,  and  placed  within  a  silver 
incasement.  It  rests  upon  an  altar  of  Italian  marble  highly  wrought. 
There  is  a  vera  effigies  of  the  f  Apostle  of  India '  on  the  south  of  the 
tomb,  and  a  statue  of  solid  silver,  which  is  not  exposed  to  view.  He 
died  in  the  island  of  Santian,  in  the  Chinese  Seas,  in  1552.  His  body 
was  brought  to  Goa  in  1554.  It  was  exposed  to  public  view  till  1780, 
when  it  was  locked  up  in  its  present  receptacle.  Alas  that  it  should 
now  be  viewed  as  the  '  sacred  dust '  of  a  heathen  Buddha  ! 

"  We  reached  the  Archbishop's  palace  at  Pannelly  about  half-past 
five  o'clock.  The  quaternarian  kept  his  appointment  and  introduced 
us  to  the  curator  of  the  library,  which  I  was  very  anxious  to  examine. 
It  contained  about  two  thousand  volumes.  Though  they  are  in  a 
better  condition  than  those  in  the  Augustinian  convent,  they  are 
rapidly  going  to  decay.  Few  of  them  are  modern.  I  observed  only 
three  Protestant  volumes  among  the  whole  of  them.  I  found  a  MS. 
translation  of  the  Four  Gospels  in  Arabic,  of  which  it  would  be  well 
to  procure  a  copy. 

"  3d  February. — Many  demands  were  made  upon  us  to-day  for 
books,  which  we  could  not  answer.  Senhor  Picao,  one  of  the  exiles, 
offered  to  translate  any  publications  for  the  Tract  and  Book  Society. 
He  has  commenced  with  Bayssiere's  letter,  and  Senhor  Capella  is  pro- 
ceeding with  John  Knox  on  Prayer,  and  another  tract. 

"  4th  February.  —  The  secretary  introduced  us  to  the  Vice-rey, 
Dom  Manuel  de  Portugal  e  Castro,  at  the  palace,  who  received  us  very 
politely.  He  then  showed  us  the  portraits  of  all  the  Vice-reys  of  India. 
Most  of  them  came  originally  from  Portugal.  There  are  not  many  of 
them  which  have  not  been  re-touched  by  native  artists.  Mr.  Nunes 
seemed  to  be  very  familiar  with  the  character  and  exploits  of  those 
whom  they  represent.  The  portraits  with  which  I  was  most  interested 
were  those  of  Alfonso  de  Albuquerque,  Vasco  de  Gama,  John  de  Castro, 
and  Constantine  de  Braganza.  Constantine  refused  to  accept  from 
the  king  of  Pegu  the  sum  of  300,000  cruzados  for  a  monkey's 


OLD  GOA  AND  THE  INQUISITION.  171 

tooth  which  had  been  adored  at  Jaffnapatam  as  a  relic  of  a  Buddha. 
He  deserves  to  be  had  in  remembrance  for  his  firmness  and  deci- 
sion, and  aversion  to  countenance  idolatry.  How  different  was  his 
conduct  from  that  of  the  Bengal  Governor  who  sent  an  ambassador 
to  the  Grand  Lama  to  congratulate  him  on  his  incarnation  !  A  con- 
siderable number  of  Brahmans  called  upon  us  to-day.  One  of  them 
has  been  in  the  service  of  Colonel  Kennedy  and  Mr.  Candy.  His 
name  is  Narayan  Shastree.  I  discoursed  with  him  and  others  for  a 
considerable  time,  and  gave  him  a  copy  of  Mr.  Candy's  tracts,  and 
of  my  Exposure.  The  Hindoos  of  Goa  have  been  well  supplied  with 
books  during  our  visit,  and  many  of  them  have  heard  the  Gospel  in  its 
simplicity.  We  guarded  them  against  being  misled  by  Romish  cere- 
monies. Many  of  them  told  us  that  they  well  knew  that  the  Goakars 
do  not  walk  according  to  the  Christian  Shastre.  In  the  evening  we 
sailed  up  to  Old  Goa.  We  took  a  short  walk,  and  conversed  a  little 
with  several  priests  and  friars  about  the  public  buildings,  etc.  One  of 
them  spoke  with  exultation  of  the  destruction  of  the  Inquisition. 
To  my  question,  An  sit  in  ejus  loco  altera  curia  ?  he  replied  in  the 
negative. 

"  5th  February. — During  the  course  of  the  day  we  heard  a  good  deal 
of  scolding  in  the  Aljuva,  and  we  saw  the  quaternarian  sign  a  warrant 
for  the  arrest  of  an  individual.  From  these  circumstances,  as  well  as 
from  what  was  expressly  stated  to  us,  I  have  little  doubt  that  the 
Aljuva  is  a  kind  of  substitute  for  the  Inquisition.  It  is  not  merely 
used  for  the  purpose  of  imprisoning  priests,  but  it  is  used  as  the  place 
of  the  archbishop's  court.  This  court  has  the  power  of  inflicting 
punishment  by  fine  and  imprisonment,  as  well  as  by  suspension, 
excommunication,  and  penance.  Its  decisions  are  not  at  present 
characterised  by  any  great  degree  of  severity,  but  it  must  be  evident 
that  its  powers  are  incompatible  with  civil  and  religious  liberty.  Dr. 
Buchanan  quotes  Dellon  as  intimating  that  its  proceedings  were  fre- 
quently highly  improper. 

"  When  we  had  ordered  all  our  baggage  to  be  put  on  board  the 
boat  to  be  conveyed  to  Sankali,  we  went  to  see  the  Church  and  Con- 
vent of  the  Franciscans.  They  are  worthy  of  inspection.  They  belong 
to  the  most  ancient  order  of  monks  in  Goa.  The  Franciscans  were  the 
chaplains  of  the  first  Portuguese  ships  which  visited  India.  Those  of 
their  order  at  present  in  India  live  entirely  as  paupers.  Education, 
however,  is  not  neglected  by  them.  The  monk  who  showed  us  the 
buildings  conversed  in  Latin  with  ease.  The  professor  of  philosophy, 
to  whom  he  introduced  us,  appeared  a  very  respectable  scholar.  We 


172  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

inspected  a  considerable  number  of  the  books  in  his  cell,  and  to  him, 
as  well  as  to  almost  all  the  priests  whom  we  have  met  in  Goa,  we  gave 
a  few  small  volumes." 

Eeturning  through  the  jungle  of  the  coast  and  the  forest 
of  the  Ghats,  where  they  slept  with  only  a  slight  covering 
from  the  dew,  but  soundly  after  the  fatigue  of  their  intercourse 
in  Goa,  Mr.  Wilson  and  his  companion  reached  the  pure 
Marathee- speaking  district  of  Dharwar,  and  the  London 
mission  station  of  Belgaum.  Here  he  came  on  the  border 
line  of  the  Tamul-speaking  and  the  Canarese  districts  of 
Madras.  In  preaching  to  the  English  residents  he  did  not, 
amid  all  the  claims  of  India,  forget  to  urge  those  of  the  Gaelic 
School  Society.  He  passed  through  Shankeswar,  the  residence 
of  the  great  Swami  of  Western  India,  where  the  annual  fair  of 
the  deified  reformer  Shankar  Acharya  was  being  held  by  ten 
thousand  people,  and  the  god  was  being  dragged  in  a  car 
forty-five  feet  high.  After  a  day's  incessant  preaching  there, 
and  at  other  towns  and  villages,  Mr.  Wilson  thus  writes 
in  his  journal : — 

"  I  have  often  wondered  how  Whitefield  could  preach  so 
frequently  in  England;  but  it  is  now  a  considerable  time 
since  I  discovered  that  practice  in  public  speaking  makes  it 
comparatively  easy.  Some  advocates  speak  four  or  five  hours 
daily  at  the  bar  during  the  press  of  business ;  and  we,  who 
are  called  to  act  as  ambassadors  of  Christ  to  our  perishing 
fellow  men,  may  well  continue  our  ministrations  during  a 
longer  time.  The  interest  with  which  we  are  heard  has  a 
reflex  influence  in  strengthening  us  for  the  discharge  of  our 
duties.  The  impressions  which  we  produce,  though  in  general 
they  may  not  lead  to  any  very  striking  visible  effect,  have,  I 
am  persuaded,  a  powerful  influence  in  weakening  the  hold  of 
superstition,  and  in  enlightening  and  directing  the  conscience. 
When  the  Gospel  is  generally  preached,  as  I  hope  it  soon  will 
be,  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country,  individual 


1834.]  THE  HOUSE  OF  SIVAJEE  NOW.  173 

conversions  will  become  more  frequent.  It  is  the  general 
apathy  of  the  unenlightened,  which  destroys  the  ardour  of 
individuals,  on  whose  mind  favourable  impressions  are  pro- 
duced. I  fervently  wish  that  evangelical  agitation  were  "the 
order  of  the  day  in  India.  Into  this  agitation  I  would  of 
course  wish  no  unholy  element  to  enter.  I  would  wish  it  to 
be  like  that  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Eeformers." 

The  town  is  further  remarkable  for  the  first  of  those  inter- 
views with  one  of  the  princes  of  India,  to  which  Mr.  Wilson 
was  afterwards  frequently  invited.  The  house  of  Sivajee,  the 
founder  of  the  Maratha  power,  is  now  represented  only  by 
the  Eaja  of  Kolhapore,  the  representative  of  its  younger,  and 
the  Eaja  of  Satara,  the  head  of  its  elder  branch.  Bawo  Sahib, 
who  received  Mr.  Wilson,  was  "  an  oppressive  and  profligate 
ruler,"  who  had  not  many  years  before  been  compelled  by  a 
British  force  to  abstain  from  attacking  his  brother  chiefs.  He 
died  in  1838,  four  years  after  the  visit,  leaving  a  son,  the 
misrule  of  whose  minority  again  compelled  our  interference. 
But  he  was  faithful  in  the  Mutiny  of  1857.  On  his  death, 
in  1866,  we  at  once  recognised  his  nephew  and  adopted  son 
Eajaram.  To  him  a  melancholy  interest  attaches.  Well 
educated  he  visited  England  in  1870,  a  gentle  youth  who 
wrote  a  journal  of  his  experience,  presenting  a  significant 
contrast  to  that  of  his  grandfather,  to  whom  Mr.  Wilson 
"  opened  the  Scriptures "  in  vain,  and  told  the  story  of  the 
conversion  of  Britain  which  these  Scriptures  had  made  great. 
Eaja  Eajaram  died  at  Florence,  and  his  body  was  burned  with 
Hindoo  rites  on  the  banks  of  the  Arno,  the  last  of  that  branch 
of  Sivajee's  house.  To  perpetuate  it,  Lord  Mayo's  government 
waived  all  the  usual  provisions  in  a  case  of  adoption,  and 
another  Bhonsla  boy  was  searched  out  in  1871.  He  is  now 
fifteen  years  of  age,  and  is  being  educated  to  govern  some 
800,000  tenantry,  who  pay  him  annually  a  revenue  of  the  third 
of  a  million  sterling. 


174  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

On  reaching  the  confines  of  Kolhapore,  the  Scottish 
missionaries  were  met  by  troopers,  who  attended  them. 
On  nearing  the  town  the  Captain -General  and  a  few 
of  the  troopers  and  thirty  sepoys  formed  an  escort  to  the 
banks  of  the  Pandi-Gunga,  where  their  tents  had  been  pitched. 
There  they  had  presented  to  them,  in  the  name  of  the 
descendant  of  the  mighty  Sivajee,  "  great  loads  of  fruit,  sweet- 
meats, eggs,  and  chickens,"  and  they  found  a  retinue  of  liveried 
servants  at  their  call.  After  examining  the  black  marble 
tomb-temples  of  Shankar,  the  reformer,  and  his  first  disciple, 
and  preaching  for  a  day,  the  Sahebs  were  thus  received  at  an 
audience : — 

"26th  February  1834. — At  four  in  the  afternoon,  two  of  the 
Sirdars,  attended  by  forty  sepoys,  came  to  conduct  us  to  the  palace. 
The  streets,  as  we  passed  along,  were  as  much  lined  with  people  as  if 
the  King  of  England  had  come  to  see  them.  We  were  vastly  ashamed 
of  the  honours  which  they  tried  to  heap  upon  us.  On  our  arrival  at 
the  palace  we  were  received  by  Haibat  Kao  Gwaikawar,  one  of  the 
most  respectable  of  the  Sirdars.  He  conducted  us  to  the  great  room. 
"We  entered  it,  according  to  custom,  without  our  shoes.  Several  hun- 
dreds of  people,  including  all  the  Sirdars,  were  seated  in  two  rows 
fronting  one  another.  We  were  squatted  near  the  Gddi  (royal  cushion.) 
On  the  entrance  of  the  Raja  all  the  people  stood  up.  He  saluted  us 
very  kindly  and  asked  us  to  sit  down.  After  a  little  commonplace 
conversation,  we  directed  his  attention  to  the  Christian  Scriptures, 
and  gave  him  a  brief  summary  of  their  contents.  I  then  presented 
him  with  an  elegantly  bound  copy  of  the  New  Testament,  and  of  the 
Exposure  of  Hinduism,  and  with  copies  of  Matthew  bound  in  silk,  and 
Exposures  and  other  tracts  for  his  Sirdars.  He  expressed  his  pleasure 
at  receiving  them.  I  told  him  about  the  conversion  of  Britain,  and 
ascribed  all  its  greatness  to  the  book  of  which  I  had  given  him  a  copy. 
Mr.  Mitchell  recommended  him  to  encourage  education  in  his  terri- 
tories. He  made  several  inquiries  at  us  about  the  Governor  and 
gentlemen  whom  we  had  seen.  We  gave  him  all  the  information  in 
our  power.  The  Raja  is  rather  of  a  small  stature,  but  a  good  specimen 
of  a  Maratha.  He  has  more  show  about  his  household  than  I  expected. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  he  practises  polygamy.  He  has  five  wives, 
but  only  two  sons  and  one  daughter. 


1834.]  SATARA.       THE  MAHABLESHWAR  HILLS.  175 

"  10th  March  1834. — We  rose  at  gun-fire,  and,  along  with  Dr. 
Young,  we  ascended  to  the  celebrated  hill-fort  of  Satara.  It  is  about 
3000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  its  height  from  the  base  is 
about  900  feet.  It  is  strong  by  nature,  as  the  rocks  near  the  summit 
are  perpendicular.  We  took  about  twenty  minutes  to  walk  round  it. 
It  commands  a  very  fine  view  of  the  country.  In  descending  from  it, 
we  found  the  agreeableness  of  '  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary 
land.'  In  the  afternoon  we  visited  Satara.  It  is  much  better  laid  out 
than  any  native  town  which  I  have  seen.  The  streets  are  broad  and 
straight,  and  the  houses  are,  on  the  whole,  neat  and  substantial.  The 
English  have  the  credit  of  forming  the  plan  of  some  of  them.  The 
population  is  variously  estimated.  It  may  be  stated  at  from  between 
fifteen  to  twenty  thousand,  and  it  is  reported  to  be  on  the  increase. 
The  weekly  bazaar,  which  we  observed,  is  well  attended.  Native 
cloths  are  plentiful  and  cheap.  The  palace  is  a  plain  quadrangular 
building.  We  should  have  been  introduced  to  the  Eaja  had  he  been 
at  home.  His  high  school  is  also  a  quadrangular  building. 

"13th  March. — We  set  out  for  Malcolm  -  Peth  on  the  Mahab- 
leshwar  Hills  about  two  hours  before  sunset ;  and  we  arrived  at  the 
sanitarium,  where  we  were  kindly  received  by  Captain  Jameson  about 
nine  o'clock.  On  the  top  of  the  ghat,  about  4500  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea,  we  saw  the  fern  and  the  willow,  and  heard  the  voice  of  the 
lark,  the  thrush,  and  the  blackbird.  They  called  vividly  to  remem- 
brance our  native  hills  and  groves,  and  made  our  very  souls  thrill. 
We  made  several  calls  on  European  gentlemen  throughout  the  day, 
and  we  preached  to  large  congregations  of  natives.  I  recognised  two 
of  my  Bombay  native  friends  among  our  audience.  They  were  very 
happy  to  see  me. 

"  1 5th  March. — We  proceeded  early  in  the  morning  to  Ma- 
hableshwar,  which  is  about  three  and  a  half  miles  distant  from 
the  sanitarium  in  Malcolm-Peth,  or  Nehar,  as  it  is  called  by  the 
natives.  Our  ride  was  remarkably  pleasant.  The  tops  of  the  hills 
and  mountains  below  us  were  rising  above  the  thick  white  clouds  like 
islands  in  the  ocean.  The  appearance  of  the  cottages,  roads,  and 
plants  reminded  us  of  the  scenes  in  another  land.  The  atmosphere 
was  comparatively  cool  and  bracing.  The  sun  was  rising  with  glory 
in  the  east.  The  birds  were  offering  up  their  early  orisons  to  him  who 
formed  them.  Mahableshwar  is  a  religious  establishment,  almost  on 
the  highest  pinnacle  of  the  hills,  sacred  to  Shiva.  It  has  no  connec- 
tion with  Wai  in  the  plains  below,  as  has  been  alleged  by  some.  It  is 
under  the  direction  of  Deshast  Brahmans,  while  Wai,  as  I  have  said,  is 


176  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

under  the  direction  of  Konkanasts.  There  is  a  considerable  spring  at 
the  most  sacred  spot,  which  is  said  to  be  the  source  of  the  Krishndbai, 
Savitri,  etc.,  and  which  is  denominated  the  Pancliaganga.  There  is  a 
small  tank  at  the  place  where  it  issues  from  the  ground,  and  which 
forms  the  Tirtha,  to  which  pilgrims  repair.  It  is  surrounded  by  a 
small  court  and  shed,  in  which  there  are  a  few  idols.  When  we  were 
slowly  walking  round  it,  the  Brahmans  rushed  upon  us  like  dogs,  and 
declared  that  we  had  defiled  the  place,  and  threatened  to  inform  the 
Government,  whose  orders,  they  said,  we  had  disobeyed.  Mr.  Mitchell 
began  to  reason  with  them  ;  but  the  storm  of  their  passions  increased. 
Seeing  this,  I  adopted  a  different  course.  'You  saw  us  enter  the 
court,'  I  said,  and  '  you  did  not  give  us  the  least  hint  that  we  had 
done  wrong,  or  the  slightest  intimation  to  depart,  till  we  had  proceeded 
to  its  extremity.  All  at  once  you  spring  upon  us,  as  ready  to  devour 
us,  and  use  the  most  insulting  epithets.  You  have  no  authority  to  act 
in  this  manner.  If  you  are  not  quiet,  /  shall  complain  of  you  to  the 
authorities.'  They  were  instantly  apparently  as  meek  as  lambs.  I 
then  told  them  that,  foolish  and  sinful  as  we  considered  idolatry  and 
all  its  forms,  we  had  no  wish  to  use  the  slightest  violence  with  them, 
or  to  intrude  into  places  which  we  had  no  right  to  enter.  They 
expressed  themselves  satisfied.  The  fact  of  the  matter  is,  that,  even 
according  to  the  principles  of  Hinduism,  we  were  not  the  cause  of  any 
defilement ;  and  that  gentlemen,  from  whom  money  is  expected,  are 
permitted  to  perambulate  the  court  ad  libitum.  It  is  only  since  the 
place  became  a  convalescent  station  for  the  English  that  the  Brahmans 
here  have  lifted  their  heads  on  high.  They  get  many  donations  from 
native  servants,  and  sometimes  from  their  inconsiderate  masters  !  They 
received  nothing  from  us  but  sound  instruction.  We  preached  to  about 
thirty  of  them,  and  to  about  the  same  number  of  agriculturists,  under 
a  mandapa  (tabernacle)  which  had  been  erected  during  a  late  festi- 
val. When  speaking  of  the  vanity  of  the  muntras  (incantations)  I 
repeated  the  gayatri  (the  most  sacred  verse  in  the  Hindu  Vedas),  and 
commented  on  the  vanity  of  the  trust  which  is  reposed  in  it.  Some 
astonishment  was  expressed  at  my  acquisition  of  it,  but  no  offence  was 
taken.  I  have  uniformly  found  that  when  the  most  sacred  writings  of 
the  Hindus  are  appealed  to,  without  any  taunting  on  my  own  part, 
my  quotations  are  listened  to  with  respect.  On  one  occasion  I  quoted 
the  gayatri  to  silence  a  man  who  had  spoken  very  impudently  to  me. 
He  and  all  my  Brahmanical  auditors  put  their  fingers  in  their  ears, 
and  fled  from  me  in  all  directions  !  I  have  very  seldom  witnessed  a 
similar  occurrence.  '  We  must  just  let  matters  take  their  course/  said 


1834.]  ATTACKED  BY  A  TIGER. 

a  Brahman  once  to  me,  '  all  our  efforts  to  conceal  are  fruitless.  The 
end  of  the  world  draweth  nigh.  The  very  Yawans  (Greeks  or 
foreigners)  converse  like  Pundits  !'" 

This  is  our  first  introduction  to  the  great  hill  sanitarium 
of  Bombay,  which  was  ceded  in  1829  by  the  Kaja  of  Satara  in 
exchange  for  other  lands.  The  State  lapsed  in  1848,  but  the 
British  Government  has  continued  a  pension  of  £250  a  month 
to  the  adopted  child  of  the  last  widow  of  the  Kaja,  who  died 
in  1874.  The  concluding  extract  from  Mr.  "Wilson's  journal 
of  this  third  tour  tells  of  that  encounter  with  a  tiger  which 
some  of  his  Hindoo  controversialists  declared  that  he  magni- 
fied into  a  miracle ! 

"  1 8th  March  1834. — We  set  out  for  Nagotanaa  little  before  sunset. 
On  the  road  I  experienced  a  remarkable  deliverance,  which  should  excite 
my  most  fervent  gratitude  to  the  Father  of  all  mercies.  I  had  got  the 
start  of  Mr.  Mitchell  in  passing  through  the  jungle,  and  in  order  to  allow 
him  opportunity  of  coming  to  me  I  was  just  about  to  pull  up  my  horse, 
when  I  observed  an  enormously  large  tiger  about  six  yards  from  me. 
Instead  of  running  from  me,  he  sprang  up  near  my  horse  ;  I  then  cried 
out  as  loud  as  I  could,  with  the  view  of  frightening  him.  I  had  the 
happiness  of  seeing  him  retreat  for  a  little  ;  and  I  galloped  from  him, 
as  fast  as  my  horse  could  carry  me,  to  Mr.  Mitchell,  whom  I  found 
walking  with  four  or  five  natives.  We  passed  together  the  spot  where  I 
had  the  encounter,  without  seeing  our  enemy.  He  was  heard,  however, 
among  the  trees  by  our  horse-keepers.  He  has  been  seen  by  the 
natives  for  some  days  past  a  short  time  after  sunset,  exactly  at  the 
place  (about  six  miles  from  Nagotana)  where  he  appeared  to  me.  The 
men  whom  I  found  with  Mr.  Mitchell  told  me  that  they  regularly  pre- 
sent offerings  for  protection  from  tigers  to  an  image  on  Wardhan  hill. 
I  showed  them  the  vanity  of  their  confidence  ;  but  in  their  misdirected 
devotion  I  saw  the  call  to  remember  '  the  Lord  who  is  my  refuge,  even 
the  Most  High.' " 

Some  time  after  this  the  able  civilian,  Sir  J.  P.  Willoughby, 
presented  Mr.  Wilson  with  a  cottage  on  Mahableshwar,  and 
there,  when  more  advanced  in  years,  he  and  his  missionary 
brethren  used  to  recruit  their  wasted  energies  during  the 

N 


1*78  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

college  vacation  in  the  great  heat  of  May  and  June  in  the 
plains.  He  became  closely  identified  with  the  place  up  to 
the  year  of  his  death,  and  evangelised  among  its  tribes  right 
down  to  Poona.  When  a  part  of  the  hill  called  Sydney 
Point,  after  Sir  Sydney  Beckwith,  the  Commander-in- Chief, 
had  its  name  changed  to  Lodwick  Point,  he  used  humorously 
to  resent  such  tampering  with  historical  and  landscape  associ- 
ations. His  "  bungalow "  was  another  mission  centre,  like 
Ambrolie  in  the  native  quarter  of  Bombay.  Not  a  day  passed 
even  there  without  vernacular  preaching  and  examination 
of  schools,  while  the  ever  increasing  arrears  of  his  extensive 
correspondence  were  cleared  off.  The  climate  and  the 
scenery  alike  tempted  to  literary  labours.  To  the  compara- 
tively small  and  select  society  of  European  officials,  civil  and 
military,  and  to  the  educated  native  gentlemen  who  began  to 
frequent  the  spot,  Mr.  Wilson  often  delivered  those  lectures 
which  afterwards  attracted  crowds  in  the  Town  Hall  of  the 
capital.  In  close  and  constant  intercourse  with  the  Governor, 
the  Commander-in- Chief,  and  the  members  of  Council,  he 
brought  his  wide  information  and  high  principles  to  bear  on 
political  questions,  especially  when  these  concerned  the  native 
princes  and  people.  Thus  Mahableshwar  became  to  him  the 
scene  not  merely  of  well-deserved  rest  but  of  more  varied 
work  and  wider  social  influence. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

1835. 

•     TOUR  TO  DAMAN,  SURAT,   BARODA,  KATHIAWAR,   KUTCH, 
DWARKA,  AND  SOMNATH. 

First  Exploration  of  the  Goojaratee  Country  and  its  Native  States — The 
Portuguese  in  Daman — A  Catch  of  Zand  MSS. — Surat  Fruitful  in  Facts — 
British  Government  and  Idolatry — Hindoos  and  Muhammadans  denouncing 
each  other — An  Eclectic  Rationalist — Mr.  Wilson's  Journal,  a  Love-Offering 
to  his  Wife — Baroda  Church  Consecrated  by  Heber — Audience  of  the  Gaikwar 
described — Correspondence  between  the  Gaikwar  and  Mr.  Wilson — The  Mad 
Gaikwars — Cambay  to  Bhownuggur — A  Hill  of  Shrines — Satan's  Celestial 
City — Mr.  Wilson's  Letter  to  the  Jain  Priests — Rajkote — A  King  Punished 
for  Murdering  his  Infant  Daughter — Kutch — Work  of  the  Rev.  James  Gray — 
A  Good  Raja — Schwartz  and  Raja  Serfojee — The  Land  of  Krishna— Beyt  and 
Dwarka,  their  Pirates  and  Priests — Mr.  Wilson  anticipates  James  Prinsep  at 
Girnar — The  Historical  Temple  of  Somnath — Lord  Ellenborough — Death  and 
Separation  in  the  Mission  Family  of  Ambrolie — Mrs.  Margaret  Wilson's  Last 
Hours — Memoir  by  her  Husband. 


"  Such  was  the  talk  they  held  upon  their  way 
Of  him  to  whose  old  city  they  were  bound; 
And  now,  upon  their  journey,  many  a  day 

Had  risen  and  closed,  and  many  a  week  gone  round, 
And  many  a  realm  and  region  had  they  passed, 
When  now  the  ancient  towers  appeared  at  last. 

"  Their  golden  summits  in  the  noonday  light 

Shone  o'er  the  dark  green  deep  that  roll'd  between, 
For  domes,  and  pinnacles,  and  spires  were  seen 

Peering  above  the  sea — a  mournful  sight ! 
Well  might  the  sad  beholder  ween  from  thence 

What  works  of  wonder  the  devouring  wave 

Had  swallowed  there,  when  monuments  so  brave 
Bore  record  of  their  old  magnificence. 

And  on  the  sandy  shore,  beside  the  verge 
Of  ocean,  here  and  there,  a  rock-hewn  fane 

Eesisted  in  its  strength  the  surf  and  surge 
That  on  their  deep  foundations  beat  in  vain. 

In  solitude  the  ancient  temples  stood, 
Once  resonant  with  instrument  and  song, 

And  solemn  dance  of  festive  multitude; 
Now,  as  the  weary  ages  pass  along, 

Hearing  no  voice  save  of  the  ocean's  flood 

Which  roars  for  ever  on  the  restless  shores; 
Or  visiting  their  solitary  caves, 

The  lonely  sound  of  winds  that  moan  around 
Accordant  to  the  melancholy  waves. 

"  Wondering,  he  stood  awhile  to  gaze 
Upon  the  works  of  elder  days. 

"  High  over-head  sublime 

The  mighty  gateway's  storied  roof  was  spread, 
Dwarfing  the  puny  piles  of  younger  time 
With  the  deeds  of  days  of  yore 
That  ample  roof  was  sculptured  o'er, 
And  many  a  godlike  form  there  met  his  eye, 
And  many  an  emblem  dark  of  mystery. " 

SOUTHEY  :   The  Curse  of  Kehama. 


1835.]  MISSIONARY  SURVEY  OF  WESTERN  INDIA.  181 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

HAVING  now  completed  such  a  detailed  survey  of  the  central, 
eastern,  and  southern  districts  of  the  province,  including  Portu- 
guese Goa,  as  was  possible  in  three  cold  weather  seasons,  Mr. 
Wilson  prepared  for  the  longest  and  most  fruitful  of  all  his 
early  tours,  that  through  the  northern  half  of  Bombay. 
Familiar  first  of  all  with  the  varied  elements  of  the  popula- 
tion of  a  quarter  of  a  million  in  the  capital  city  itself,  he  had 
now  carried  his  elevating  message  to  Hindoo,  Muhammadan, 
and  jungle  or  robber  tribe,  over  the  whole  Maratha  country 
from  sacred  Nasik  to  only  less  holy  Shankeswar,  and  from 
the  Jews  and  Parsees  of  the  Konkan  to  the  Muhammadans  of 
Jalna.  All  he  had  studied  with  a  keen  interest  and  a  never- 
failing  memory.  There  remained  the  Goojaratee  country, 
with  its  great  native  states  of  Baroda,  Kathiawar,  and  Kutch, 
stretching  up,  to  the  Indus- washed  delta  of  Sindh  and  the 
deserts  of  Eajpootana.  In  the  rich  cotton-fields  of  Goojarat 
the  Parsees  found  an  asylum  before  the  English  attracted 
them  to  the  island  of  Bombay,  and  Mr.  Wilson  had  fairly 
given  himself  to  that  study  of  their  literature  and  religion 
with  which,  more  than  with  any  other,  his  name  is  identified. 
Not  only  there,  but  in  the  native  States  are  the  half-Buddhist, 
half-Hindoo  communities  of  the  Jains  to  be  found,  and  it  was 
his  task  to  understand  in  order  that  he  might  influence  them. 
So  the  closing  weeks  of  the  year  1834  saw  him,  his  wife  (as  far 
as  Surat),  and  his  attached  friend  Dr.  Smyttan  of  the  Govern- 
ment service,  set  out  in  that  modest  "  shigram,"  or  one-horse 
vehicle,  which  for  half  a  century  was  familiar  to  all  natives 


182  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

and  Europeans  in  Bombay  as  the  great  missionary's.  Past 
Mahim  and  Bassein,  and  along  the  shore  washed  by  the 
Arabian  Sea  to  still  Portuguese  Daman,  the  travellers  crept, 
taking  a  week  to  accomplish  the  distance  now  achieved  by 
railway  in  a  few  hours.  Of  Daman,  conquered  in  1831,  we 
read  in  the  Journal — "  A  Parsee  gave  us  no  favourable  idea 
of  the  Portuguese  Government.  The  soldiers  were  represented 
as  helping  themselves  to  whatever  articles  they  need.  Justice, 
it  was  said,  is  an  article  which  requires  to  be  purchased  at  a 
dear  rate.  The  sun  of  Daman,  which  Juliao,  the  late 
Miguelite  Governor,  denominates  on  a  triumphal  arch,  cele- 
berrima  urbs  in  oriente,  appears  to  have  reached  its  meridian. 
There  is  something  very  instructive  in  the  decline  of  the 
Portuguese  power  in  India  and  the  rise  of  that  of  the  British. 
Camoens  represents  Vasco  de  Gama  as  describing  the  whole  of 
Europe  to  the  lord  of  Melinda.  The  hero  makes  no  mention 
of  England !  But  observe  the  ways  of  Divine  Providence. 
The  country  which  was  too  contemptible  to  be  noticed  three 
hundred  years  ago,  is  now  the  most  powerful  in  the  world,  and 
it  is  under  its  favour  that  the  Portuguese  exercise  sovereignty 
over  their  remaining  small  territories  in  India."  Here  Mr. 
Wilson  purchased,  for  Ks.300,  a  copy  of  the  Vendidad  Sade 
and  of  all  the  sacred  books  of  the  Parsees  in  the  original 
Zand,  Pahlavi  and  Pazand  tongues,  but  in  the  Goojaratee 
character,  and  with  a  Goojaratee  commentary  and  transla- 
tion. Of  this  work,  in  five  folio  volumes,  he  remarks — "  Of  its 
use  to  a  missionary  there  can  be  no  doubt.  I  procured  along 
with  it  copies  of  all  the  narratives  calculated  to  throw  any 
light  upon  the  history  of  the  Zoroastrians  in  India,  and  some 
other  curious  pamphlets  connected  with  their  religion." 

Continuing  their  journey  northwards,  the  party  passed  the 
most  ancient  fire  temple  in  India,  at  Umarasaree,  and  inspected 
the  extensive  fire  temple  of  Nausaree,  the  streets  of  which 
were,  at  that  early  time,  regularly  lighted  at  night  by  lamps 


1835.]  SURAT  AND  THE  E.  I.  COMPANY'S  IDOLATRY.  183 

with  oiled  paper  shades.  Surat,  177  miles  north  of  the 
capital,1  first  of  English  settlements  in  India,  was  found  to  be 
declining  as  Bombay  supplanted  it,  and  the  decay  has  gone 
on  till  the  present  time,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  visit  of  the 
Governor,  Sir  Eichard  Temple,  to  its  deserted  buildings,  and 
half-obliterated  tombs  of  Oxenden  and  others  this  year.  Mr. 
Fyvie  was  the  only  (London)  missionary  there,  and  he  after- 
wards joined  Mr.  Wilson  on  his  tour.  But  Surat  has  ever 
been  marked  by  the  intelligence  of  its  native  inhabitants, 
whose  spirit  has  shown  itself  more  than  once  in  rioting  against 
taxes  imposed  in  an  unpopular  form.  Here  Mr.  Wilson 
collected  much  information  regarding  the  eighty-four  castes 
of  Goojaratee  Brahmans,  the  early  settlements  of  the  Parsee 
refugees  from  Muhammadan  intolerance,  and  the  three  Bohora 
sects  of  Muhammadans.  He  learned  that  half  the  great  fire 
temples  of  India  had  been  erected  only  within  the  previous 
twelve  years.  The  relation  of  the  British  Government  to 
those  cults  he  thus  describes  : — 

"  The  English  government  has  still  the  responsibility,  and 
a  fearful  one  it  is  both  for  rulers  and  their  agents,  of  directly 
and  publicly  countenancing  idolatry  and  superstition.  The 
new  moon,  except  during  two  months  of  the  year,  is 
regularly  saluted  by  five  guns  to  please  the  Mussulmans! 
Two  thousand  rupees,  I  was  told,  are  annually  contributed  to 
the  same  people  to  assist  them  in  the  celebration  of  their  eeds  ! 
The  chief  of  Surat,  and  the  British  administrator  of  justice  in 
its  province,  commits  the  cocoa-nut  to  the  river  on  the  day  of 
the  great  heathenish  procession  at  the  break  of  the  monsoon ! 
How  all  this  folly  originated  amidst  the  ungodliness  of  many 
of  the  olden  servants  of  the  Company  I  can  easily  understand  ; 
but  how  it  has  been  so  long  continued  I  am  puzzled  to  know. 
The  day  was  when,  I  suppose,  one  would  have  got  a  free 
passage  to  Europe,  via  China,  for  noticing  it.  I  certainly 
1  Pronounced  Soorut,  the  Sun  city  of  the  Ramayun  epic. 


184  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

thought,  without  making  a  reference  to  higher  and  more 
solemn  considerations,  that  after  the  order  came  from  the 
Court  of  Directors,  'That  in  all  matters  relating  to  their 
temples,  their  worship,  their  festivals,  their  religious  practices, 
and  their  ceremonial  observances,  our  native  subjects  be  left 
entirely  to  themselves/  our  late  excellent  Governor  would 
have  put  an  extinguisher  upon  it.  Surely  the  son  of  CHARLES 
GRANT  will  perform  the  right  honourable  act." 

After  nine  days  in  the  old  city,  Mr.  Wilson  was  received 
at  the  next  stage  northwards  by  Mr.  Kirkland,  the  civilian 
in  charge,  to  whom  Dr.  Chalmers  had  given  him  an  intro- 
ductory note.  The  march  from  the  Taptee,  which  almost 
encircles  Surat,  to  the  Nerbudda,  was  spent  in  discussing 
a  census  of  the  "  Pergunna  "  or  "  Hundred  "  of  the  district, 
from  which  the  fact  of  the  murder  of  female  children  became 
evident.  A  visit  to  Broach,  the  ancient  Barygaza,  the  com- 
mercial glory  of  which  has  given  place  to  a  great  agricultural 
prosperity  under  British  rule,  resulted  in  further  work  among 
the  Parsees  and  Jains,  and  on  the  17th  January  1835  Baroda 
was  reached.  The  bruit  of  the  discussions  with  Hindoos  and 
Muhammadans  in  Bombay  seemed  to  have  everywhere  pre- 
ceded Mr.  Wilson.  At  one  village  belonging  to  one  of  the 
Gaikwar's  feudatories,  Mussulmans  and  Hindoos  "  commenced 
denouncing  the  faith  of  each  other  in  no  very  measured 
language,"  after  the  statement  which  they  had  invited  from 
the  missionary.  Before  he  could  rest  on  the  Saturday  of  his 
arrival  at  Baroda  he  had  to  grapple  long  with  a  really 
earnest  Brahman,  who,  having  become  the  secretary  of  a 
neighbouring  Muhammadan  Nawab,  was  an  eclectic  rationalist, 
seeking  truth  in  accordance  with  reason  only,  and  rejecting 
his  own  scriptures  as  inspired.  The  following  very  human 
extract  from  one  of  the  letters  which  generally  covered  the 
instalments  of  his  journal,  may  serve  as  an  introduction  to 
its  more  formal  narrative.  He  preached  twice  in  the  English 


1835.]  IN  THE  TRACK  OF  BISHOP  HEBER.  185 

Church  to  the  European  residents,  who  were  rarely  visited  by 
chaplain  or  missionary.  Bishop  Heber  had  consecrated  it 
ten  years  before,  when  he  was  "  both  amused  and  interested," 
though  a  little  fatigued,  by  his  purely  ceremonial  visit  to  the 
Gaikwar,  whose  invitation  to  witness  the  cruel  sport  of 
elephant-baiting  he  declined.  The  good  Bishop's  narrative 
of  his  visit  to  Baroda,  in  1826,  presents  a  striking  contrast  to 
Mr.  Wilson's  Journal  in  1835,  but  the  difference  is  due 
chiefly  to  the  knowledge  which  the  Presbyterian  "  Bishop  " 
had  acquired  of  the  language  and  religion  of  the  Gaikwar. 

"BA.RODA,  IQth  January  1835. 

"  MY  DEAREST  LOVE — Surely  you  do  not  wish  me  to  detain  my 
Journal  for  the  mere  purpose  of  having  it  accompanied  with  a  letter  which 
I  may  not  always  find  time  to  write.  You  must  view  the  Journal  as  a 
communication.  I  should  get  on  very  poorly  with  it  if  I  had  not  you 
in  my  eye.  It  is  inter  alia  a  love-offering.  I  question  if  Mrs.  Webb 
had  it  that  she  would  think  of  rejecting  it.  She  was  very  proud  about 
the  journal  which  her  excellent  brother  Eichard  Townshend  sent  to 
her,  and  very  justly  so.  Tell  you  her  this. 

"  I  write  to  you  from  Kadical  Hall.  Captain  S is  over  head 

and  ears  in  an  Irish  bog ;  and  how  he  will  get  out  I  know  not.  He 
has  drawn  in  several  young  men  to  him.  Irish  bogs  move,  it  is  said. 
Do  you  think  that  they  will  ever  move  to  the  land  of  liberty  ?  1 
trow  not.  I  am  quite  tired  of  their  bawlings.  Perhaps  I  may  have 
done  something  to  stop  the  spread  of  the  mania. 

"  Tell  Mr.  Webb  that  Bishop  Heber  consecrated  the  Baroda  Church ; 
and  that  Bishops  Fyvie  and  Wilson  have  reconsecrated  it.  Mr.  Fyvie 
read  the  prayers  of  the  Church  of  England  in  it.  Colonel  Burford 
gave  the  church  to  us.  We  had  the  sacrament  privately  in  the  evening 
yesterday,  twelve  communicants  including  two  natives.  I  thought 
much  of  you  and  the  dear  children.  Surely  I  may  commit  you  all  to 
the  care  of  Him  who  died  on  the  cross  for  my  sins." 

"  23c?  January. — I  spent  the  morning  with  Mr.  Williams,  the  Political 
Commissioner.  About  eleven  o'clock  I  proceeded  with  him  and  Colonel 
Burford,  Dr.  Smyttan,  Mr.  Malet,  and  Major  Morris,  to  the  palace  of 
the  Gaikwar.  We  were  all  mounted  on  an  elephant,  and  attended  by 
the  guard  of  honour  which  accompanies  the  Political  Commissioner  on 
his  visit  to  the  king.  We  were  introduced  to  the  Gaikwar  at  the  door 


186  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

of  the  Durbar  ;  and  we  walked  up  with  him  through  the  ranks  of  his 
courtiers,  to  the  Gadi.  Mr.  Williams  sat  next  to  the  great  man,  and  I 
next  to  Mr.  Williams.  After  conversing  with  his  Highness  for  a  little 
on  the  late  frosts,  I  asked  whether  or  not  I  should  be  permitted,  as  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel,  to  give  a  statement  of  the  principles  and 
evidences  of  Christianity,  the  religion  professed  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Britain  and  many  other  countries,  and  which  demands  the  acceptance 
of  mankind  throughout  the  world.  His  Highness  informed  me  that  he 
would  be  very  happy  indeed  ;  and  I  proceeded.  I  gave  a  view  of  the 
Scripture  account  of  the  character  of  God,  of  the  natural  state  of  man, 
and  of  the  means  of  salvation  ;  and  contrasted  this  account  with  those 
given  in  the  Hindu  Shastres.  When  I  had  concluded,  his  Highness 
called  upon  Venirama,  his  minister,  to  come  forward,  and  assist  him  to 
form  a  judgment  of  what  had  been  said,  which  was  entirely  new  to 
him.  Venirama  obeyed,  and  declared  that  Jesus  was  an  incarnation 
similar  to  Eama  and  Krishna,  who  has  received  from  God  as  a  war 
(boon)  the  power  of  saving  all  those  who  believe  in  him.  l  Rama  and 
Krishna,'  I  observed,  'were  no  incarnations  of  God  at  all.  They 
might  have  been  great  warriors,  like  the  forefathers  of  the  Gaikwar, 
who  were  deified  by  the  poets  ;  but  most  assuredly  their  characters 
forbid  the  entertainment  of  the  idea  that  they  were  incarnations  of  the 
divinity.  It  is  evident  that  they  were  sinners.  Krishna  is  spoken  of 
in  the  tenth  section  of  the  Bhagavat  as  having  been  guilty  of 
murder,  adultery,  theft,  and  falsehood  ;  and  Rama  is  described  by 
Valmiki  as  a  person  who  perjured  himself  to  Mandedari,  the  wife  of 
Ravana, — who  banished  his  wife,  though  innocent  of  the  charges 
brought  against  her,  at  a  time  when  she  was  pregnant,  and  thus  proved 
himself  a  bad  husband  and  a  bad  father  ;  and  troubled  his  poor 
brother  Lukshmun  so  much  that  he  destroyed  himself,  and  thus  proved 
a  bad  brother.  Christ  Jesus,  however,  committed  no  sin,  and  acted 
in  every  way  suitable  to  his  claims  as  God  manifested  in  the  flesh.' 

"  Our  conversation  then  proceeded  as  follows  : — Venirama.  Don't 
allege  that  the  seeming  evil  acts  of  our  Gods  were  sinful.  God  can  do 
what  he  pleases,  and  who  is  to  call  him  to  account  1  J.  W.  God  is 
not  responsible  to  any,  but  He  will  act  always  according  to  His  nature, 
which  is  perfectly  holy.  Even  Krishna  is  represented  in  the  Geeta  as 
admitting  the  propriety  of  his  regarding  moral  observances.  '  If  I 
were  not  vigorously  to  attend  to  these  (the  moral  duties),  all  men 
would  presently  follow  my  example,  etc.'  Judging  Krishna  by  what 
is  here  said,  I  am  bound  to  condemn  him.  The  legend,  moreover,  says 
that  he  felt  the  effects  of  his  sin.  When  Jugannath  was  asked 


1835.]        DISCUSSION  BEFORE  THE  GAIRWAR  OF  BARODA.          187 

why  he  had  no  hands  and  no  feet,  he  declared  that  he  lost  them 
through  his  mischief  at  Gokula.  Venirama.  God  can  sin.  He  is  the 
author  of  all  sin.  /.  W.  Do  not  blaspheme  the  Self-existent.  Venirama. 
This  is  no  blasphemy.  If  God  is  not  the  author  of  sin,  pray  who  is 
the  author  of  it  1  J.  W.  The  creatures  of  God  are  the  authors  of  it. 
You  must  admit  that  God  has  given  a  law  to  men.  Venirama.  I  do 
admit  this,  and  say  that  this  law  is  good.  /.  W.  Now,  I  make  an 
appeal  to  his  Highness.  Will  the  great  king  first  make  laws  for  his 
subjects,  then  give  them  a  disposition  to  break  these  laws,  and  last  of 
all  punish  them  for  breaking  them  1  Gaikwar  (laughing  heartily). 
Verily  I  will  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  I  am  always  angry  when  my 
subjects  break  my  laws.  /.  W.  And  is  not  the  King  of  Kings  and 
Lord  of  Lords  angry  when  his  laws  are  broken  ?  Why  does  He  send 
disease  and  death  into  the  world,  and  why  has  He  prepared  hell  unless 
for  the  punishment  of  the  wicked  ?  Venirama.  I  know  not ;  but  who 
is  there  to  sin  but  God  ?  He  is  the  only  entity.  J.  W.  So,  I  suppose, 
you  have  no  objections  to  say  Aham  Brahmasmi1  (I  am  Brahma).  V. 
It  is  not  lawful  for  me  to  repeat  these  sacred  words.  /.  W.  Not  lawful 
for  God  to  declare  his  own  existence  !  You  were  saying  a  little  while 
ago  that  it  was  lawful  for  God  to  do  anything,  even  to  sin.  I  think 
it  presumption  for  any  man  to  declare  that  he  is  God  in  any  form  of 
words.  Never  let  the  weakness,  ignorance,  sin,  suffering,  and  change 
of  men,  be  attributed  to  God.  V.  God  in  the  form  of  men  is  apparently 
weak,  and  so  forth.  Suppose  the  Divine  nature  to  be  a  tree.  Men  are 
the  leaves  of  that  tree.  Now,  the  leaves  differ  from  the  branches  and 
the  stalk  and  the  root ;  and  men,  growing  out  from  the  Godhead,  differ 
in  some  respects  from  the  Godhead  from  which  they  grow.  J.  W.  But 
my  position  is  that  men  are  in  no  sense  part  of  the  Godhead.  Their 
weakness,  ignorance,  sin,  suffering,  and  so  forth,  to  which  I  have 
alluded,  prove  this.  They  are  the  workmanship  of  God.  V.  But  what 
is  the  creation  but  the  expansion  of  God.  J.  W.  It  is  the  product  of 
the  Divine  word  and  power.  I  cannot  admit  for  a  moment  the  theory 
of  God's  swelling  and  contracting,  and  contracting  and  swelling.  V. 
There  are  differences  in  religion  you  observe.  Your  religion,  I  admit, 
is  good  for  you.  J.  W.  My  religion  professes  to  be  the  only  one  which 
is  given  by  God,  and  to  be  good  for  all  men.  God  never  would  give 
such  contradictory  accounts  of  Himself  and  His  will  as  are  to  be  found 
in  the  Christian  and  Hindoo  religions.  Both  of  them  cannot  be  true  ; 
for,  in  a  thousand  points  which  I  can  enumerate,  they  are  directly 

1  One  of  the  four  great  sentences  of  the  Veda. 


188 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1835. 


opposed  to  one  another.  Pray,  on  what  grounds  do  you  believe  in 
Hindooism  ?  You  say  that  evidence  is  of  four  kinds  pratyash  (sensation), 
shdbda  (testimony),  anumdna  (inference),  and  upamdna  (analogy).  What 
kind  and  degree  of  these  species  of  evidence  have  you  for  Hindooism  ? 
V.  We  have  our  religion  as  we  got  it  from  our  forefathers.  It  was 
their  business  to  inquire  into  its  evidence.  J.  W.  What  a  strange 
evasion  !  If  you  be  in  the  wrong,  will  the  errors  of  your  forefathers 
excuse  you  for  neglecting  to  seek  the  truth  ?  Don't  the  Bheels  plead 
the  custom  of  their  fathers  as  an  excuse  for  their  thefts  and  robberies  ? 
Gaikwar  (laughing).  Most  certainly  they  do.  J.  W.  Surely  your 
minister  will  not  listen  to  their  plea  !  Venirama.  But  what  have  you 
got  to  say  for  Christianity  ?  /.  W.  Your  question  is  very  proper.  I 
have  got  much  to  say  for  it.  Suppose  the  Christian  Shastra  to  be  a 
letter.  I  peruse  it.  I  find  nothing  inconsistent  with  its  claims  to 
Divine  inspiration.  It  is,  in  every  respect,  worthy  of  the  holiness  and 
wisdom  of  God.  It  bears  the  impress  of  the  Divinity.  I  can  no  more 
believe  it  to  be  the  unassisted  work  of  man,  than  I  can  believe  the 
sun  to  be  the  fabrication  of  a  blacksmith.  I  behold  it  producing  the 
most  marvellous  results,  particularly  in  communicating  sanctification 
and  happiness  to  those  who  believe  in  it.  I  find  from  authentic  history 
that  it  was  published  to  the  world  at  the  time  which  it  alleges  ;  and 
that  it  testifies  as  to  miraculous  transactions,  which,  if  unreal,  could  not 
have  been  believed  at  the  time  when  it  was  published,  etc.  I  shall  be 
delighted  to  give  you  a  copy  of  it,  that  you  may  judge  for  yourselves. 
The  more  you  peruse  it  the  more  will  you  discover  its  excellence.  The 
more  that  you  inquire  into  its  history  the  more  will  you  discover  its 
credibility. 

"  When  we  had  proceeded  thus  far,  his  Highness  began  to  compliment 
me  on  my  Dakliani  boli  (accent),  and  to  declare  that  he  and  his  ministers, 
though  possessed  of  a  spice  of  the  rerum  terrestrialium  prudentia,  knew 
little  about  the  affairs  of  the  other  world.  He  then  turned  to  Mr. 
Williams,  and  told  him  that  he  ought  to  have  given  him  warning,  that 
he  might  have  the  Brahmans  in  readiness.  '  There  is  no  lack  of 
Brahmans  here,'  said  Mr.  Williams.  '  I  never  dreamt,  when  you 
requested  leave  for  the  Padre  to  visit  me,'  he  said,  '  that  he  would  act 
otherwise  than  the  Lord  Padre  Saheb,  who,  after  looking  at  every 
object  in  the  Durbar,  went  out  to  see  the  artillery  yard.  This  is  a 
guru  vishesha? 

"  After  declaring  myself  unworthy  of  the  compliments  which  his 
Highness  paid  me,  I  offered  him  a  finely-bound  copy  of  the  New 
Testament  in  Marathee.  This,  however,  he  declined  to  receive,  as  he 


1835.]  SAYAJEE  RAO,  GAIKWAR  OF  BARODA.  189 

had  not  yet  seen  reason  to  wish  to  abandon  Hindooism.  I  recom- 
mended him  to  take  the  earliest  opportunity  of  reflecting  on  what  had 
been  advanced,  and  stated  to  him  that  his  acceptance  of  the  Testa- 
ment was  not  tantamount  to  abjuring  Hindooism.  Mr.  Williams  sported 
a  joke  or  two  as  to  his  fears,  but  I  thought  it  proper  not  to  be  too 
importunate,  particularly  as  he  would  probably  not  refuse  the  gift  if 
offered  to  him  privately.  The  Gaikwar  cautioned  me  against  mis- 
understanding him,  and,  after  again  complimenting  me,  he  insisted  on 
my  accepting  from  him,  as  a  token  of  his  good- will,  a  couple  of  shawls 
and  a  gold  ornament.  I  decidedly  refused  the  offering  for  some  time  ; 
but,  on  being  informed  by  Mr.  Williams  that  my  refusal  would  probably 
give  offence,  I  yielded.  I  then  received  a  letter  from  the  Gaikwar  to 
the  authorities  at  Dwarka ;  and,  after  a  little  miscellaneous  conversa- 
tion, we  took  our  leave.  The  Kaja,  as  on  our  entrance,  walked  with 
us  through  the  Durbar.  He  is  rather  a  good-looking  Maratha,  and 
superior  in  point  of  talent  to  most  of  the  great  men  with  whom  I  have 
come  into  contact.  His  dress  was  plain,  but  his  ornaments  were 
.splendid.  His  son,  a  young  lad  of  about  sixteen  years,  who  was 
present  during  the  interview,  seemed  modest  and  placid.  The  Muham- 
madan  Sirdars  made  rather  a  good  appearance.  The  Marathas  were 
scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  the  plebs  of  their  tribe. 

"  Leaving  the  Durbar,  we  examined  the  artillery-yard  and  other 
curiosities,  and  then  proceeded  homewards.  After  dining  with  Mr. 
Williams,  Dr.  Smyttan  and  I  proceeded  on  our  journey  in  the  direction 
of  the  Gulf  of  Cambay." 

"  24th  January. — We  rode  from  Padrea  to  Gwasad  early  in  the 
morning.  I  distributed,  as  usual,  some  tracts  to  the  natives  whom  we 
met  on  the  roads,  and  preached  in  the  village.  We  rode  to  Jambusar 
in  the  evening.  After  our  arrival,  I  received  the  following  letter  from 
Mr.  Williams  relative  to  the  visit  to  the  Gaikwar: — 

'  Camp  Baroda,  January  24,  1835. 

*  My  Dear  Sir — His  Highness  sent  for  my  head  clerk  this  day, 
and  desired  him  to  explain  to  me  that  his  reason  for  not  accepting 
the  Testament  from  you  yesterday  was,  that  his  ministers,  relations, 
and  the  whole  Durbar,  would  have  considered  it  as  a  kind  of  avowal 
of  his  inclination  to  desert  his  own  creed;  that  he  was  very  much 
pleased  with  what  he  heard  yesterday,  and  requested  that  I  would 
send  the  Testament,  and  other  books,  to  him  by  my  men.  I  shall  do 
so,  either  through  the  Nawab,  or ,  whichever  channel  his  High- 
ness prefers.  His  Highness  further  wishes  to  receive  a  letter  from 


190  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

yourself  to  his  address,  stating  that  you  are  not  offended  at  his  appa- 
rent incivility  in  not  receiving  the  book  from  your  hands  when  offered 
to  him  in  the  Durbar  yesterday ;  and  desires  me  to  offer  you  his  best 
wishes,  and  to  say  that  he  has  directed  all  the  authorities  under  him 
to  afford  you  every  aid.' " 

"  25th  Junuary. — To-day  I  despatched  a  Marathee  letter,  of  which 
the  following  is  a  translation,  to  the  Gaikwar : — 

'  Shri  Eaja  Chhatrapati  Akela  Praudha  Pratap  Sayaji  Rao  Gaiakwad 

Sena  Khas  Khel  Shamsher  Bahadur.     To  his  Highness  Sayaji  Rao 

Gaikawad,  etc.,  John  Wilson,  the  Servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  with  all 

respect  writeth  as  follows : — 

'  The  illustrious  Mr.  Williams  having  communicated  to  me  your 
Highness's  wish  to  receive  a  few  lines  from  me,  I  have  the  greatest 
pleasure  in  addressing  you. 

1 1  was  much  gratified  with  the  interview  which  I  had  with  your 
Highness  in  the  Durbar  on  Friday  last,  and  I  am  duly  sensible  of  the 
kindness  and  condescension  which  you  evinced  in  granting  it  to  me. 
I  shall  always  remember  it  with  much  satisfaction. 

*  As  the  Christian  religion  appears  to  me  to  be  possessed  of  supreme 
importance,  I  embraced  the  opportunity  afforded  me  while  in  the 
presence  of  your  Highness,  and  by  your  Highness's  inquiries,  of  giving 
a  summary  of  its  principles,  and  of  the  evidence  on  which  it  rests  its 
claims  to  universal  reception ;  and  it  was  with  a  view  to  afford  your 
Highness  an  opportunity  of  judging  of  the  merits  of  that  religion  that 
I  proffered  to  your  Highness  a  copy  of  the  Christian  Shastra.  For  the 
patience  and  interest  with  which  your  Highness  and  your  ministers 
listened,  I  am  truly  grateful.  Your  declining  to  receive  the  Christian 
Shastra  in  the  Durbar,  proceeding,  as  it  did,  from  an  apprehension  that 
the  public  reception  of  it  might  be  viewed  as  giving  a  public  testimony 
in  its  favour  without  examination,  has  given  me,  I  assure  you,  not  the 
least  offence.  Nothing  is  farther  from  my  wish,  and  that  of  other 
Christians,  than  that  Christianity  should  receive  any  countenance 
which  does  not  proceed  from  the  perception  of  its  own  merits.  We 
wish  it,  in  every  case,  to  receive  the  fullest  inquiry. 

'  I  return  my  best  thanks  to  your  Highness  for  the  favours  given 
to  me  in  the  Durbar,  and  I  shall  preserve  them  as  memorials  of  your 
kindness. 

'  Why  should  I  enlarge  ?  That  your  Highness  may  long  hold  the 
chhatra  (umbrella)  of  protection  and  shelter  over  a  happy  people,  and 
enjoy  every  blessing  in  this  world  and  that  which  is  to  come,  shall  ever 
be  my  most  fervent  prayer  to  Almighty  God.  JOHN  WILSON.'  " 


1835.]  THE  MAD  GAIKWARS.  191 

Baroda  is  one  of  the  three  great  principalities — Sindia's, 
Holkar's,  and  the  Gaikwar's — which  Maratha  soldiers  carved 
out  of  the  debris  of  the  Moghul  empire  under  the  flag,  first 
of  Sivajee's  house,  and  then  of  his  Mayor  of  the  Palace,  the 
Peshwa.  The  first  Gaikwar,  or  "  cowherd,"  held  the  position 
of  the  Peshwa's  commander-in-chief  till  1721.  In  the  sub- 
sequent century  the  Gaikwars  achieved  such  independence 
as  was  possible  under  the  gradually  growing  suzerainty  of 
the  East  India  Company.  In  1819  Sayajee  Eao,  whom  Mr. 
Wilson  describes,  had  succeeded  his  brother,  and  was  from 
the  first,  unhappily,  left  to  his  own  devices  under  certain 
vague  guarantees.  Misrule,  financial  insolvency,  and  dis- 
loyalty were  the  inevitable  consequences,  till  in  1839  he  was 
threatened  with  deposition  by  the  paramount  power,  which 
could  no  longer  share  the  guilt  of  maintaining  his  oppression 
over  a  population  of  two  millions,  who  paid  him  above  a 
million  sterling  a  year.  Sayajee  managed  to  keep  his  power 
till  his  death  in  1847,  after  which  the  boy  whom  Mr.  Wilson 
saw,  Gumpert  Eao,  reigned  till  his  death  in  1856.  He  was 
succeeded  by  his  brother,  Khundee  Eao,  in  1856,  and  he  by 
the  youngest  brother,  Mulhar  Eao,  in  1870.  The  maladminis- 
tration, which  had  steadily  increased,  then  became  so 
intolerable  and  even  criminal,  that  his  deportation  to  Madras 
in  1875  was  the  result,  and  the  succession  of  a  boy  adopted 
by  Khundee  Eao's  widow.  In  his  Journal,  published  in  the 
Oriental  Christian  Spectator,  "specially  for  the  benefit  of 
the  natives,"  Mr.  Wilson  gives  no  indication  of  the  facts 
that  he  learned  on  the  spot  regarding  the  Gaikwar's  family 
and  misrule.  But  his  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  whole 
history  and  with  the  successive  Gaikwars,  led  Lord  North- 
brook's  Government  to  consult  him  during  the  events  of 
1874-5.  This  slight  sketch  of  the  house  of  Peelajee  Gaikwar 
must  be  borne  in  mind  when  we  come  to  these  later  times. 
From  Daman  to  Cambay  the  Gulf  of  Cambay  runs  up 


192  LIFE  OS,  JOHN  WILSON.  e-_     .    [1835. 

into  the  heart  of  Goojarat,  dividing  from  Surat  and  Baroda 
the  cluster  of  native  states  in  wild  Kathiawar  and  marshy 
Kutch.  Mr.  Wilson  .crossed  the^.Gulf  to  Gogo,  the  port  of 
the  principality  of  Bhownuggur,  in  which  State  is  the  famous 
Jain  hill  of  temples  at  Palhfana.  Mr.  Burgess,  now  Archaeo- 
logical Surveyor  to  the  Bombay  Government,  who  in  1868 
first  adequately  measured  and  described  the  temples  and 
caused  photographs  of  them  to  be  published,  remarks 
that  the  great  orientalist  .Colebrooke  knew  so  little  of 
Shatrunjaya  as  to  write  of  it  as  "  said  to  be  situated  in  the 
west  of  India."  Colonel  Tod,  of  Eajasthan  fame,  was  the  only 
visitor  of  note  previous  to  Mr.  "Wilson,  and  that  in  1822.  The 
Chinese  pilgrim  of  the  seventh  century,  Hiuen  Thsang,  seems 
to  have  passed  it  by,  although  he  was  so  near  it  as  Girnar. 
"  The  sovereign  of  places  of  pilgrimage,"  as  the  old  annals 
call  it,  was  transferred  from  the  Buddhists  to  their  Hindoo 
friends,  the  Jains,  in  421  A.D.  After  Mr.  Wilson's  visit  the 
wealth  of  the  Jain  merchants  of  the  cotton  capital  covered 
the  hill  with  fanes  which  even  Mr.  Fergusson  allows  to  rival 
the  old  temples  not  only  in  splendour,  but  in  the  beauty  and 
delicacy  of  their  details ;  so  that  a  local  writer  remarks — 
"  one  almost  feels  the  place  a  satanic  mockery  of  that  fair 
celestial  city  into  which  naught  may  enter  that  defileth !" 

"  &th  February. — I  arrived  in  Palitana  about  9  o'clock,  and  after 
examining  a  Mussulman's  tomb  and  mosque  of  superior  workmanship 
ascribed  to  Muhammad  Ghori,  and  situated  in  the  suburbs,  I  proceeded 
to  read  to  and  address  the  people  till  Mr.  Fyvie  came  up.  We  took 
up  our  abode  in  a  kind  of  dharmshala,  to  which  we  were  directed 
by  the  agent  of  Hemabhai,  a  rich  Jain  merchant  of  Ahmedabad,  in 
whose  favour  the  village  is  sequestrated  till  such  time  as  the  Kaja  dis- 
charges the  debts  which  he  owes  to  him.  We  had  as  usual  large 
audiences  throughout  the  day.  Many  of  those  who  came  to  hear  the 
Gospel  were  Shravaks  (laymen  of  the  Jain  order).  They  strongly 
remonstrated  with  us  on  the  intention  of  our  servants  to  kill  a  lamb 
for  a  supply  of  animal  food.  After  vindicating  our  rights  and  refuting 
the  errors  of  the  Jaina  system  as  to  the  life  of  brutes,  we  set  the 


1835.]  A  HILL  OF  JAIN  TEMPLES.  193 

animal  at  liberty,  lest  we  should  give  unnecessary  offence.  Observa- 
tion has  since  made  me  doubt  the  propriety  of  a  concession  of  this 
character,  which  can  easily  be  misunderstood  and  misrepresented. 

"  About  3  o'clock  P.M.  we  commenced  the  ascent  of  the  Shatrunji 
hill,  which  is  about  a  mile  and  a  half  distant  from  the  village,  with 
the  view  of  inspecting  the  far-famed  Jain  temples.  On  arriving  at  the 
summit  I  thought  it  right  to  look  at  the  works  of  God  before  examining 
the  works  of  men,  which  they  have  impiously  placed  in  his  stead.  The 
view  of  the  adjoining  country  is  very  extensive,  stretching  over  the 
Thalaja  hills,  with  the  Shatrunji  river  winding  between  them  to  the 
sea  on  the  south-east ;  to  the  mountain  of  Girnar  on  the  west,  which 
is  distant  at  least  seventy  miles ;  and  to  the  Sihor  hills  on  the 
north.  Exclusive  of  the  elevations  now  mentioned,  it  is  principally  of 
a  level  character,  but  sufficiently  fertile.  The  voice  of  nature  unequi- 
vocally proclaims  '  God  that  made  the  world,  and  all  things  therein, 
seeing  that  he  is  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  dwelleth  not  in  temples 
made  with  hands  ;  neither  is  worshipped  with  men's  hands,  as  though 
he  needed  anything  ;  seeing  he  giveth  to  all,  life,  and  breath,  and  all 
things.'  The  ear  of  man,  however,  has,  for  many  centuries  at  least, 
been  deaf  to  this  voice  in  this  place.  The  very  place  where  the  view 
of  the  Divine  workmanship  is  the  most  glorious  is  that  which  has  been 
chosen  for  the  sanctuary  of  those  who  are  no  Gods,  who  are  even 
allowed  by  their  votaries  to  be  nothing  else  but  mortals  who  have 
obtained  nirwana,  absorption  into  the  Great  Spirit,  or  a  freedom 
from  all  the  incidents  common  to  mortality  and  change. l 

"  The  temples  are  the  most  splendid,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the 
cave  temples  of  Elora,  the  most  costly  which  I  have  seen  connected 
with  heathenism  in  India.  They  are  principally  built  of  a  coarse- 
grained sandstone  from  Gopinath,  or  of  the  basalt  rock  of  the  hill,  and 
in  many  places  are  neatly  chunamed.  The  floors  and  doorposts  are 
of  variegated  marble,  a  good  deal  of  the  workmanship  being 
mosaic.  The  departments  and  shrines  are  numerous  ;  but  the  two 
most  worthy  of  notice  are  devoted  to  Rishabha  Deva  and  Parasanatha, 
the  first  and  twenty-third  of  the  emancipated  Jains  or  Adinath. 
That  which  includes  the  image  of  the  former  lord  is  sometimes  ascribed  to 
Kumara  Pala,  the  great  sovereign  of  Goojarat,  who  was  converted  to 

1  I  have  found  it  very  difficult  to  arrive  at  the  precise  notion  which  the 
Jains  attach  to  this  term.  Most  generally  they  speak  of  it  as  equivalent  to 
the  Sayujyata  (absorption)  of  the  Brahmans.  Sometimes  they  speak  of  the 
twenty-four  emancipated  Jainas  as  having  a  separate  existence  in  the  state  in 
which  they  now  are. 

0 


194  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

the  Jaina  faith  in  the  year  1174,  but  an  inscription  upon  it  gives  it  no 
date.  The  images  are  colossal,  and,  with  the  exception  of  that  of 
Niminatha  which  is  black,  they  are  of  white  or  yellow  marble,  and  of 
the  kind  denominated  Swetambar,  decorated  with  ear-rings,  necklaces, 
armlets,  and  footlets  (nepur),  of  gold  or  precious  stones.  They  lately 
invited  the  attention  of  some  thieves,  who  robbed  them,  according  to 
the  native  account,  to  the  amount  of  ten  thousand  rupees.  The  wonder 
is  that  in  such  a  country  as  this,  where  honesty  is  not  much  regarded, 
and  where  the  inhabitants  are  distinguished  among  Hindoos  for  their 
daring,  such  a  quantity  of  treasure  has  been  suffered  to  remain  so  long 
unmolested.  The  gods,  it  must  be  remembered,  however,  are  under 
the  protection  of  a  small  military  or  police  establishment.  Several 
cannons  stand  along  the  outer  walls  with  open  mouths,  ready  to  speak 
terror  to  all  enemies  who  are  disposed  to  give  due  warning  of  their 
approach.  It  is  rather  a  curious  circumstance  that  the  guards  of  the 
temples  are  Muhammadans  from  Arabia,  Mekran,  etc.,  who  are  thus 
quite  ready  to  compromise  their  principles  for  a  piece  of  bread.  They 
often  regale  visitors  with  music  as  they  go  round  the  temples.  A  corner 
of  the  hill  is  consecrated  to  the  memory  of  a  Mussulman,  Pir  Hengar. 
This  is  analogous  to  the  Mussulman  Masjid  in  the  convent  of  Mount 
Sinai. 

"  Extensive  as  are  the  temples  on  the  Palitana  hill,  they  must  be 
considered  insufficient  for  the  purpose  for  which  they  have  been  erected  ; 
for  a  most  extensive  work,  to  cost  five  lakhs  of  rupees  (£50,000),  is 
going  on  under  the  auspices  of  Motichand  Amichand  of  Bombay. 
About  five  hundred  persons  are  engaged  in  forwarding  it.  All  the 
stones  are  brought  from  a  distance,  and  carried  up  the  hill  with  great 
difficulty. 

.  "  The  natives  who  showed  us  the  temples  informed  us  that  we 
might  enter  the  sanctum  sanctorum  provided  we  would  take  off  our 
leather  shoes.  This,  however,  we  declined  to  do,  fearing  that  com- 
pliance might  be  mistaken  for  an  admission  of  the  divinity  of  the 
place.  All  the  Jaina  priests  whom  we  saw  had  cloth  shoes.  They 
carried  an  ugha,  or  besom,  to  sweep  the  road  as  they  advanced  into  the 
interior,  and  thus  put  all  insects  out  of  the  way  of  harm  ;  and  a 
mohomati,  or  mouth  cloth,  to  prevent  insects  from  entering  their  mouths 
when  praying.  Tenderness  to  life  is  what  they  much  attend  to. 
They  believe  that  all  life,  however  diffused,  is  uncreated  ;  and  that  the 
matter  in  which  it  is  wrapped  up  is  uncreated.  They  make  no  dis- 
tinction between  the  life  of  vegetables,  brutes,  men,  and  God  essentially 
considered,  and  thus  fall  into  the  grossest  religious  errors.  An  active 


1835.]  EPISTLE  TO  THE  JAIN  PRIESTS.  195 

Providence  they  do  not  admit,  and  their  religious  services,  conse- 
quently, have  no  reference  to  the  adoration  of  the  Supreme.  They  are 
gone  through  merely  because  they  are  believed  to  have  certain  bene- 
ficial effects  on  those  who  practise  them.  The  following  letter  I 
prepared  to  the  Yatis  of  Palitana,  in  reference  to  the  errors  in  which 
they  are  involved. 

'To  ALL  THE  YATIS  OF  PALITANA,  TWO  SERVANTS  OF  JESUS 
CHRIST,  THE  ONLY  SAVIOUR  OF  MEN,  WRITE  AS  FOLLOWS  : — 

'Though  we  have  no  acquaintance  with  you  we  wish  your  welfare. 
It  is  the  desire  of  our  hearts,  in  the  presence  of  God,  that  you  may  be 
happy  in  this  world  and  that  which  is  to  come.  We  have  surveyed 
the  splendid  temples  which  are  on  the  Shatrunji  hill ;  and  however 
much  we  admire  them  as  buildings,  we  do  regret  the  object  for  which 
they  have  been  erected.  They  are  not,  as  they  ought  to  have  been, 
places  in  which  God  is  worshipped.  They  are  filled  with  images  of 
men  whom  you  suppose  to  have  obtained  Nirwana.  These  images,  or 
those  whom  they  represent,  are  the  objects  of  your  supplications  !  We 
do  mourn  over  the  errors  into  which  your  fathers  fell  respecting 
the  divine  nature,  and  from  which  you  have  not  yet  been  delivered. 
It  is  lamentable  to  think  that  you  do  not  admit  a  creating  and  super- 
intending Providence.  You  cannot  but  see  in  the  world  on  which  you 
move,  and  in  the  worlds  above  you,  decided  marks  of  design  and 
wisdom  •  and,  if  you  reason  correctly,  you  cannot  but  attribute  this 
design  and  wisdom  to  a  being  who  exercises  it.  When  you  look  to 
your  own  temples,  you  say  that  they  have  been  built.  Why  do  you 
not  admit,  when  you  look  to  the  temple  of  the  Universe,  that  it 
must  ha^e  an  Architect,  whose  wisdom  and  power  and  goodness 
are  infinite  ?  It  is  the  height  of  folly  to  attribute  what  you  see  to  a 
necessitous  fate. 

'  You  are  wiser  than  the  Brahmans  when  you  say  that  there  is  an 
essential  distinction  between  matter  and  spirit.  Of  neither  matter  nor 
spirit,  however,  have  you  correct  ideas.  All  spirit  is  not,  as  you 
imagine,  uncreated.  God,  whose  existence  and  attributes  are  proved 
by  his  works,  is  uncreated,  but  all  other  spirit  has  been  created  by 
him,  not  from  his  own  spirit  as  the  Brahmans  imagine,  but  from 
nothing,  by  his  powerful  word.  In  that  spirit  which  has  been  created 
there  are  essential  differences.  The  spirit  of  man  differs  from  that  of 
all  the  spirits  with  which  we  are  acquainted  on  earth.  It  alone  is 
capable  of  knowing,  loving,  and  serving  God,  and  it  alone  has  a  moral 
responsibility  in  the  sight  of  God.  It  will  continue  either  in  a  state  of 
suffering  or  of  happiness  after  death,  while  the  spirit  of  the  beasts,  etc., 


196  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

shall  have  perished.  Matter  is  not,  as  you  imagine,  uncreated.  God 
made  the  whole  of  it,  not  from  his  own  substance,  by  the  word  of  his 
power  •  and,  whenever  he  pleases,  he  can  destroy  it.  To  suppose  it  to 
exist  independently  of  the  creation  of  God  is  to  make  of  it  a  God.'  " 

The  letter  proceeds  to  show  that  the  worship  of  the 
twenty-four  Tirthankars,  and  the  performance  of  good  works, 
cannot  remove  that  sin  the  existence  of  which  the  Jains  admit, 
and  it  then  expounds  the  salvation  offered  by  Christ.  It 
was  largely  circulated  in  the  Goojaratee  form.  Mr.  Wilson 
reasoned  with  the  Kaja  of  the  place,  and  with  the  Jains  of  the 
puritan  Dhoondra  sect,  one  of  whose  religious  duties  is  to 
keep  out  of  the  way  of  the  wind  lest  it  should  blow  insects 
into  the  mouth.  Their  confidence  in  their  tenderness  towards 
life  makes  them  very  conceited.  "  How  many  lives  are  there 
in  a  pound  of  water  ? "  asked  Mr.  Wilson  of  a  Dhoondra. 
D.  "An  infinite  number."  W.  "How  many  are  there  in 
a  bullock?"  D.  "  One."  W.  "You  kill  thousands  of  lives, 
then,  while  the  Mussulman  butcher  kills  one."  The  Hindoos 
laughed,  and  the  Dhoondras  joined  them. 

At  Kajkote,  in  the  heart  of  the  Kathiawar  peninsula,  Mr. 
Wilson  came  fairly  face  to  face  with  female  infanticide.  The 
young  Eajpoot  chief  of  the  Jhadeja  tribe  he  found  under 
sequestration,  because  of  having  been  accessory  to  the  murder 
of  his  infant  daughter.  The  long-neglected  precautions  and 
regulations  of  the  benevolent  General  Walker  had  been 
revived  by  Sir.  J.  P.  Willoughby,  a  civilian  who  afterwards 
adorned  the  Council  of  the  Secretary  of  State  for  India.  Mr. 
Wilson  expounded  to  the  Kaja  and  his  court  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, "not  overlooking  the  sixth,  which  he  has  so 
daringly  violated,"  while  regarding  him  "with  deep  com- 
passion." This  agreement,1  signed  by  every  Jhadeja  chief  in 
General  Walker's  time,  presents  a  curious  contrast  to  recent 
legislation  on  the  same  subject. 

1  Aitchison's  Collection  of  Treaties,  Engagements,  and  Sunnuds,  vol.  iv. 
p.  129,  and  also  p.  109,  second  edition,  1876. 


1835.]  NATIVE  DENUNCIATION  OF  INFANTICIDE.  197 

"  Whereas  the  Honourable  English  Company,  and  Anund  Bow 
Guikwar,  Sena  Khas  Kheyl  Shamsher  Bahadoor,  having  set  forth  to  us 
the  dictates  of  the  Shastres  and  the  true  faith  of  the  Hindoos,  as  well 
as  that  the  '  Brumhu  Vy  wurtuk  Pooran '  declares  the  killing  of  children 
to  be  a  heinous  sin,  it  being  written  that  it  is  as  great  an  offence  to 
kill  an  embryo  as  a  Brahman ;  that  to  kill  one  woman  is  as  great  a  sin 
as  killing  a  hundred  Brahmans ;  that  to  put  one  child  to  death  is  as 
great  a  transgression  against  the  divine  laws  as  to  kill  a  hundred  women ; 
and  that  the  perpetrators  of  this  sin  shall  be  damned  to  the  hell  Kule 
Sootheeta,  where  he  shall  be  infested  with  as  many  maggots  as  he 
may  have  hairs  on  his  body,  be  born  again  a  leper,  and  debilitated 
in  all  his  members ;  we,  Jahdeja  Dewajee  and  Kooer  Nuthoo,  Zemin- 
dars of  Gondul  (the  custom  of  female  infanticide  having  long  prevailed 
in  our  caste),  do  hereby  agree  for  ourselves,  and  for  our  offspring,  for 
ever,  for  the  sake  of  our  own  prosperity,  and  for  the  credit  of  the 
Hindoo  faith,  that  we  shall  from  this  day  renounce  this  practice  ;  and, 
in  default  of  this,  that  we  acknowledge  ourselves  offenders  against  the 
Sircars.  Moreover,  should  any  one  in  future  commit  this  offence,  we 
shall  expel  him  from  our  caste,  and  he  shall  be  punished  according  to 
the  pleasure  of  the  two  Governments,  and  the  rule  of  the  Shastres." 

"  22d  February — Sabbath. — I  have  never  travelled  on  this  day  since 
I  came  to  India,  but  in  order  that  we  might  have  an  opportunity  of 
preaching  to  our  countrymen  in  a  camp  where  the  face  of  a  minister 
has  not  been  seen  since  the  death  of  Mr.  Gray,  we  rode  into  Bhooj  early 
in  the  morning.  We  found  that  arrangements  for  public  worship  had 
been  made  by  Colonel  Pottinger,  the  Resident,  with  whom  we  took  up 
our  abode." 

The  Eev.  James  Gray — a  chaplain  worthy  as  man  and 
orientalist  of  Henry  Lord,  the  first  of  the  Company's  ecclesias- 
tical establishment  at  Surat — had  died  five  years  before,  and 
there  were  140  Europeans  at  this  remote  station.  His  story 
is  another  added  to  those  romances  of  an  Indian  career  with 
which  our  history  in  the  East  is  so  plentifully  and  heroically 
strewed.  A  shoemaker  of  Dunse,  not  far  from  Mr.  Wilson's 
birthplace,  he  educated  himself  to  be  the  second  best  teacher 
of  Greek  in  Scotland,  as  the  senior  master  of  the  High  School 
of  Edinburgh.  He  was  the  friend  of  Burns,  the  tutor  of  his 
boys,  the  correspondent  of  "Wordsworth,  and  himself  a  poet 


198  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

and   classical   critic   in    Ulackwood's    Magazine.     His   elegy 
appears  in  Hogg's  Queen's  Wake  as  that  of  one — 

"  Bred  on  southern  shore, 
Beneath  the  mists  of  Lammermore." 

Intenser  views  of  Christian  truth  led  him  to  accept  an 
East  India  chaplaincy,  and  in  the  solitude  of  Bhooj  he  gave 
the  close  of  his  life  to  service  to  the  natives,  from  the  young 
Eaja  whom  he  taught,  to  the  simple  folk  whose  dialect  of 
Kutchee,  a  transition  from  Goojaratee,  he  reduced  to  writing. 
These  were  days  when  our  native  feudatories  were  left  to 
themselves,  and  the  millions  whom  they  ruled  had  no  such 
guarantees  against  oppression  as  Lord  Dalhousie  and  Lord 
Canning  established  when  the  empire  became  consolidated. 
Mr.  Gray's  good  work  has  often  been  repeated  since,  but  after 
Schwartz  he  was  the  first,  from  1826  to  1830,  to  aim  at  such 
an  object  as  this — "  I  shall  be  able  to  make  him  one  of  the 
most  learned  kings  that  ever  were  in  India,  as  he  promises  to 
be  one  of  the  most  humane.  Oh  !  that  I  may  be  enabled  to 
impart  to  his  mind  a  portion  of  that  wisdom  that  cometh 
down  from  above."  A  few  months  after  that  Mr.  Gray  passed 
away,  his  death  officially  declared  by  Sir  John  Malcolm  to  be 
"  a  public  loss,"  and  his  name  associated  in  the  journals  with 
those  of  Carey,  Leyden,  and  Morrison.  Like  Schwartz's  royal 
pupil,  Maharaja  Serfojee  of  Tanjore,  the  grateful  Eao  Daisul 
of  Kutch  erected  a  monument  to  Mr.  Gray.  From  1833  to 
1860  Rao  Daisul  ruled  his  half  million  of  people  with  loyalty 
to  the  British  Crown,  fidelity  to  the  teaching  of  his  Christian 
tutor,  and  the  best  results  to  the  people.  Slavery  he  abolished 
the  year  after  Mr.  Wilson's  visit.  Infanticide  he  suppressed 
by  new  regulations,  so  that  the  proportion  of  females  to  males 
in  the  Jhadeja  tribe  in  Kutch  rose  from  1  to  8  in  1842  to  1 
to  1*04  in  1868.  His  son  more  recently  helped  Sir  Bartle 
Frere  to  stop  the  slave  trade  from  Zanzibar  to  Muscat,  which 


1835.]  THE  HUMANE  PRINCE  OF  KUTCH.  199 

Kutch  capitalists  had  encouraged,  and  his  grandson  is  now  a 
boy  of  eleven  under  training  for  power  at  the  usual  age  of 
Indian  majority,  eighteen.  This  was  Mr.  Wilson's  experience 
of  the  Eao  Daisul. 

"  23d  February. — Colonel  Pottinger  kindly  introduced  Mr.  Fyvie 
and  me  to  the  Rao  Daisuljee.  He  received  us  at  the  palace  with  much 
cordiality,  and  proved  very  affable.  In  1819,  when  only  three  years 
of  age,  he  was  elected  to  the  throne  by  the  brotherhood  of  the  Jhadeja 
Rajpoots,  in  room  of  his  father,  whose  oppressive  conduct,  and  his 
infidelity  in  the  engagements  which  he  had  made  with  the  British,  had 
led  to  his  deposition.  His  Highness's  acquaintance  with  the  English 
language  is  considerable.  Of  its  vocables  he  has  a  creditable  store,  and 
a  tolerably  ready,  though  not  a  very  correct,  use.  While  of  the  English 
literature  and  science,  properly  so  called,  he  has  little  knowledge,  he 
has  a  general  acquaintance  with  English  manners  and  customs.  As  an 
oriental  linguist  he  is  deserving  of  much  praise.  With  the  Kutchee, 
Goojaratee,  Hindostanee,  and  Persian  he  is  familiar  ;  and  he  is  able  to 
speak  and  read  them  with  fluency.  He  is  distinguished  for  his  good 
sense  ;  and  manifests  a  vast  deal  more  of  correct  and  amiable  feeling 
than  I  have  seen  among  any  of  the  grandees  in  India.  There  are  few, 
indeed,  of  the  natives  in  Bombay  whom  I  could  prefer  before  him  in 
this  respect.  There  is  a  modesty  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  self-respect 
on  the  other,  which  I  have  seldom  seen  united  in  a  native  of  Asia. 
He  is  represented  by  those  who  know  him  as  free  from  the  prominent 
vices  for  which  many  of  his  predecessors  were  so  lamentably  dis- 
tinguished, and  which  led  to  the  misery  of  their  subjects  and  their 
own  ruin.  He  is  much  respected  and  beloved  by  his  people,  as  well 
he  may  ;  and,  under  God,  he  may  prove  to  them  the  source  of  the 
greatest  blessings.  He  has  commenced  his  reign  by  declaring  his 
determination  to  suppress  infanticide  ;  to  prevent  an  increase  of  the 
Pawayas  (Eunuchs  and  Sodomites),  who  have  formerly  not  only  been 
tolerated  in  the  country,  but  received  from  it  state-endowments,  and 
been  recognised  as  entitled  to  receive  per  annum  a  loaf  of  bread  and  four 
pice  (Ijd.)  from  every  inhabitant  of  the  land,  and  to  discourage  other 
evil  practices.  In  reference  to  infanticide  he  has  brought  all  the 
Jhadejas  under  new  and  strict  engagements,  and  an  offender  he  has 
signally  punished  by  depriving  him  of  his  property.  We  took  an 
opportunity  of  commending  him  for  what  he  has  done,  and  encouraged 
him  to  persevere.  He  expressed  himself  in  a  very  satisfactory  manner 


200  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

on  the  subject ;  and  clearly  showed  that  the  common  feelings  of 
humanity  had  full  play  in  his  breast.  I  cannot  say  so  much  for  any 
other  Jhadeja  whom  we  have  seen,  either  in  Kathiawar  or  Kutch. 

"  The  Rao  is  certainly  superior  in  some  respects  to  the  superstitions 
of  the  country.  He  seemed  to  ridicule  the  deference  which  is  paid  to 
the  Brahmans  ;  and  he  laughed  heartily  when,  in  reply  to  an  observa- 
tion of  one  of  his  ministers,  we  related  some  of  the  evil  deeds  alleged 
to  have  been  committed  by  Rama  and  Krishna.  His  suspicions,  how- 
ever, of  the  vanity  of  idolatry  are  not  sufficiently  strong  to  lead  him 
directly  to  discourage  its  practice.  He  lives  in  an  atmosphere  of 
contagion  ;  and  he  has  not  escaped  infection.  He  observes  heathen 
rites  ;  and  he  lately  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  his  mother,  and 
repaired  a  temple  which  had  been  long  neglected.  The  horrid  practice 
of  Suttee  he  has  not  yet  opposed.  A  poor  deluded  woman  of  the  town 
burnt  herself  with  the  body  of  her  husband  about  two  months  ago. 

"  His  Highness  seemed  aware  that  Christians  profess  to  worship 
only  the  great  Creator,  and  that  the  English  have  no  images  in  their 
temples.  We  regretted  to  find,  however,  that  of  the  principles  of 
Christianity  he  had  no  knowledge.  His  curiosity  on  the  subject  it  was 
not  difficult  to  awaken.  He  readily  received  the  books  and  tracts 
which  we  gave  to  him,  questioned  us  as  to  their  contents,  and  promised 
to  read  them.  I  have  little  doubt  that  he  will  act  according  to  his 
declaration.  He  observed  that  he  was  convinced  that  the  English 
could  not  have  attained  to  their  present  greatness  without  a  good 
religion.  The  books  with  which  I  presented  him  were  Mr.  Gray's 
translation  of  the  Gospel  in  Kutchee,  and  my  two  Exposures  of  Hin- 
dooism,  and  Refutation  of  Muhammadanism.  The  Gospel  is  not  only 
the  first  book  printed  but  the  first  book  written  in  Kutchee.  It  was 
viewed  as  a  great  curiosity.  The  Rao  declared  that  while  the  language 
in  which  it  is  written  is  generally  understood,  and  spoken  by  the  lower 
orders  of  the  people,  it  is  never  used  even  for  a  single  note,  and,  of 
course,  never  taught  in  schools. 

"  When  we  were  about  to  leave  the  room  in  which  His  Highness 
received  us,  he  begged  of  us  to  wait  to  see  a  gigantic  Zanzibarian  slave 
whom  he  had  lately  obtained  as  a  present.  We  sat  till  the  African 
Hercules  came  to  make  his  saldm,  and  in  the  interval  conversed  with 
the  king  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  We  were  delighted  to  hear  him 
announce,  that  he  not  only  treated  his  few  slaves  with  kindness,  but 
that  he  had  given  them  to  wit,  on  the  occasion  of  the  desertion  of  two 
of  them,  that  they  might  all  take  their  departure  whenever  they  might 
feel  inclined.  The  Rao,  on  our  rising  to  return  home,  after  a  long 


1835.]  '  UNNATURAL  CRIMES  AND  HINDOOISM.  201 

interview,  proposed  to  show  us  all  the  curiosities  of  his  palace  and 
palace-yard.  He  personally  pointed  out  to  us  every  object  of  interest. 
What  struck  us  most  was  the  Durbar  room  of  Kao  Rakha.  It  is  con- 
structed with  a  taste  highly  creditable  to  the  workmen  of  Bhooj  ;  and 
it  contains  many  ornaments  brought  from  Holland  by  a  Kutchee  who 
had  visited  that  country.  The  Eao  has  an  excellent  collection  of 
horses  ;  and  he  evidently  takes  great  delight  in  inspecting  them.  Those 
of  the  breed  peculiar  to  the  country  are  very  superior  as  Indian  steeds. 
We  saw  for  the  first  time  specimens  of  the  lions  found  in  Kathiawar 
and  Parkur,  etc.  They  are  as  large  and  fierce-looking  as  any  which  I 
have  seen  elsewhere. 

"  The  Pawayas  form,  probably,  the  most  abominable  class  of 
people  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  Colonel  Pottinger  gave  me  an  account 
of  them  to  peruse.  They  seize  upon  destitute  boys,  constitute  them 
eunuchs,  and  train  them  up  as  professional  Sodomites.  They  have  a 
considerable  piece  of  land  held  in  indm  (free)  at  Kotara  near  the  coast  ! 
They  are  to  be  found  in  most  of  the  large  towns,  and  particularly  in 
Bhooj,  alluring  to  the  practice  of  the  sin  spoken  of  by  the  Apostle 
Paul  in  Romans  i.  27.  They  are  believed  by  many  of  the  people  to 
be  natural  hermaphrodites,  and  to  have  something  divine  about  them, 
and  to  be  entitled  to  their  regard  and  support !  There  is  surely  no 
limit  to  human  wickedness.  Emphatically,  said  the  Prophet, '  The  heart 
is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  desperately  wicked,  who  can  know  it '  ?" 

Turning  back  from  Bhooj,  the  most  northerly  part  of  the 
tour,  Mr.  Wilson  took  boat  at  its  large  port  of  Mandvee  for 
the  famous  shrines  of  Krishna  on  the  south  coast  of  the  Gulf 
of  Kutch.  Here,  at  the  island  of  Beyt  and  the  fortress- 
temple  of  Dwarka,  a  mixed  race  of  Muhammadans  and  Hindoos 
have  long  added  to  the  plunder  of  deluded  pilgrims  the  profits 
of  organised  piracy.  Sanguinary  wars  and  sieges,  before  1835 
and  since,  have  given  a  horrible  notoriety  to  the  Waghurs, 
whom  their  lord  and  employer,  the  Gaikwar,  failed  to  control. 
The  more  direct  administration  of  political  officers  so  vigorous 
as  Colonel  Keatinge,  has  in  recent  days  given  peace  to  the 
land  of  jungle  and  of  idol  shrines  which  forms  the  most 
westerly  point  of  Goojarat.  Such  merit  as  temporary  absorp- 
tion into  "  the  prince,  the  intoxicator  " — as  Krishna,  the  lasci- 


202 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1835. 


vious,  is  called — can  give,  is  now  to  be  obtained  without  the 
risks  of  1835  and  previously.  But  the  island  and  the  castle 
of  Krishna,  the  Lord  of  Dwarka,  are  not  so  attractive  as  they 
were  save  for  the  conch  shells  which  Beyt,  "  the  door  of  the 
shell,"  exports  to  supply  the  uses  of  every  Krishna  temple, 
and  also  for  purposes  of  art.  Dwarka  is  to  the  west  what 
Pooree,  the  shrine  of  Jugganath,  the  Lord  of  the  World,  is 
to  the  east  of  India. 


"  2d  March. — In  the  evening  we  essayed  to  see  the  great  temple  of 
Dwarakanatha,  of  Ranchod.  We  were  conducted  round  the  walls  of 
the  fort  in  which  it  was  situated,  and  which  are,  with  some  of  the  holy 
buildings,  fast  falling  to  decay.  When  we  arrived  at  the  gate  of  the 
1  sacred  court,'  we  asked  admittance ;  but  it  was  refused  to  us  in  no 
very  respectful  terms.  I  then  produced  the  order  of  the  Gaikwar,  but 
it  was  unavailing.  '  You  have  seen  all  that  any  European  can  see ;  no 
European  has  been  within  the  gate/  was  the  reply.  As  we  saw  nothing 
very  attractive  about  the  place,  and  much  in  its  dirt  and  filth  which 
was  disgusting,  we  prepared  to  leave  it.  We  were  told,  however,  that 
the  god  dwelt  originally  at  Dwaraka ;  that  he  fled  for  bare  life  from 
that  place  at  the  approach  of  the  Mussulmans;  that  the  discerning 
spirits  of  the  Brahmans  discovered  him  in  this  village,  originally 
denominated  Eamandi ;  that  he  condescended  to  enter  the  idol  when 
brought  hither:  and  that,  defended  by  powder  and  cast-metal  worked 
by  foreign  Makaranees,  he  had  maintained  his  existence  to  this  hour, 
and  captured  many  a  richly  laden  vessel  on  its  voyage  round  the  point 
of  Dwaraka.  In  an  unhappy  moment  he  forsook  his  followers  so  far 
as  to  allow  them  to  yield  to  the  force  of  the  English,  when  they 
captured  his  abode  a  few  years  ago.  These  Mlechas  had  sold  him  to 
the  Gaikwar,  who,  from  the  poor  returns  obtained  from  the  pilgrims, 
is  beginning  to  find  that  he  had  been  led  to  strike  a  bad  bargain.  The 
god,  however,  though  now  comparatively  forsaken  by  men,  is  not  left 
solitary.  A  host  of  sacred  beings  dwell  beside  him,  to  wit,  Baldeva, 
Kalyanji,  Madhavaji,  Keshavaji,  Devakiji — of  old  his  mother,  Garuji, 
on  whom  his  father  was  accustomed  to  take  his  aerial  flights,  Satya 
Bhamaji,  Jambauvati,  Lakshmi,  Radhaji — one  of  his  beloved  spouses, 
Gopalji  and  Gowardhanji — his  own  precious  self  in  the  days  of  his 
infancy.  Whether  they  have  occasionally  music  and  dancing  among 
themselves,  or  have  even  simple  conversation,  we  did  not  hear.  Though 


1835.]  THE  GREAT  WESTERN  SHRINE  OF  KRISHNA.  203 

they  are  less  than  nothing  and  vanity,  thousands  make  them  the  occa- 
sion of  their  eternal  ruin. 

"  The  temple  has  a  lofty  steeple,  but  there  is  nothing  otherwise 
remarkable  about  such  parts  of  its  exterior  as  we  were  permitted  to  see. 
It  cannot,  I  should  think,  be  more  than  four  or  five  hundred  years  old 
at  the  most.  The  Brahmans  would  fain  claim  for  it  a  higher  anti- 
quity. It  stands  upon  an  elevated  piece  of  ground,  and  a  flight  of 
steps  leads  from  it  to  the  creek  of  the  sea  denominated  Gomati  from 
its  many  windings.  At  the  foot  of  this  flight  there  is  a  small  dharmottar, 
where  each  of  the  mendicant  pilgrims  receives  from  the  Gaikwar  a 
'  gowpin '  of  dried  rice,  and  a  benediction  instead  of  water,  on  which 
to  subsist  for  a  day.  The  creek  is  a  place  of  sacred  ablution,  and  the 
poor  deluded  natives  imagine  that  they  can  really  wash  away  their 
sins  in  it.  Its  celebrity  is,  I  rejoice  to  say,  greatly  on  the  decline. 
Neither  its  attractions,  nor  that  of  the  idol,  are  successful  in  inviting 
the  visits  of  one-fourth  of  the  pilgrims  who  used  to  come  to  it  a  few 
years  ago.  The  proceeds  do  not  cover  a  sixth  part  of  the  expense  to 
which  the  Gaikwar  is  subjected  in  supporting  this  idolatrous  establish- 
ment. All  this  speaks  favourably  as  to  the  decline  of  superstition 
among  the  natives.  The  Brahmans  seemed  disposed  to  admit  the  fact. 

"  5th  March. — After  having  seen  all  that  is  to  be  seen  in  Dwaraka, 
and  made  many  inquiries  respecting  its  history,  we  find  nothing  con- 
nected with  it  which  can  at  all  support  the  fables  of  the  Puranas.  It 
is  not  even  alleged  on  its  behalf  that  it  is  the  town  said  to  have  been 
built  by  Krishna.  This  place  is  declared  to  have  stood  to  the  south  of 
Mangrol,  and  to  have  perished  shortly  after  the  death  of  its  founder  by 
a  bursting  forth  of  the  ocean,  whose  waves,  very  conveniently  for  the 
Brahmans  who  ever  hate  the  light,  now  cover  it.  The  present  Dwaraka 
is  not  even  alleged  to  have  been  the  Mul-Gomati.  The  place  seems 
not  only  to  float  like  an  Irish  bog,  but  its  honours  also  seem  to  be 
very  evanescent.  About  six  centuries  ago,  as  mentioned  by  Captain 
M'Murdo  and  admitted  by  all  here  with  whom  we  have  conversed,  the 
valued  image  of  the  god  Ranchod,  by  a  manoeuvre  of  the  priests,  was 
conveyed  to  Dhakur  in  Goojarat,  where  it  still  remains.  After  much 
trouble  the  Brahmans  at  Dwaraka  substituted  another,  the  pran  (life) 
of  which,  as  I  have  already  noticed,  fled  to  Bet  on  the  approach  of  the 
Mussulmans.  Surely  nothing  is  too  absurd  for  the  faith  of  a  Hindoo. 

"  Being  on  the  spot  most  sacred  to  Krishna,  we  took  an  oppor- 
tunity to-day  of  exposing  to  our  many  visitors  the  absurdity  and  sin- 
fulness  of  the  legends  respecting  him  which  are  found  in  different 
Puranas,  and  particularly  in  the  tenth  section  of  the  Bhagavata. 


204  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

"  7th  March,  POREBUNDER. — We  preached,  apart  from  one  another, 
both  morning  and  evening  in  the  bazaars;  and  we  had  many  visitors 
throughout  the  day,  whom  we  addressed  and  supplied  with  books. 
The  report  of  our  proceedings  in  other  parts  of  the  province  had 
reached  the  town,  and  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  interest  with 
which  our  ministrations  were  viewed.  I  am  more  and  more  persuaded 
that  long  missionary  tours  are  by  far  the  most  beneficial.  Had  we 
confined  ourselves  on  this  occasion  to  a  small  district,  there  would 
have  been  little  or  none  of  this  ardour,  which  procures  us  numerous 
and  interested  auditors.  '  I  must  hear,'  say  many,  '  what  every  person 
in  every  place  hears.'  There  has  been  too  much  overlooking  of  human 
sympathy  in  the  conduct  of  many  Missions.  If  the  Hindoos  are  to  be 
wrought  upon,  they  must  be  roused.  The  ministry  of  excitement, 
both  of  John  the  Baptist  and  our  blessed  Lord,  preceded  the  ministry 
of  conversion  through  the  Apostles  in  the  land  of  Judaea.  Something 
similar  may  be  the  case  in  India." 

Sailing  down  the  coast,  Mr.  Wilson  reached  Jooriagurh,  a 
Muhammadan  principality,  in  the  court  of  which  he  had  long 
discussions  till  past  midnight,  first  with  Hindoo  and  then  with 
Mussulman  scholars.  He  found  the  Hindoo  prime  minister 
well  acquainted  with  Arabic.  But  his  visit  has  a  peculiar 
interest  because  of  his — the  first — attempt,  in  1835,  to 
decipher  the  famous  Asoka  inscriptions  on  the  granite  rock  of 
Girnar,  discussed  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  The  classical 
hill,  ten  miles  from  the  town,  Mr.  Wilson  reached  through 
the  surrounding  jungle  at  daybreak. 

"  1 2th  March. — The  ascent  is  very  difficult,  and  in  some  places, 
from  the  precipitousness  of  the  mountain,  rather  trying  to  the  nerves. 
The  rock  is  of  granite,  containing,  particularly  near  the  summit,  a 
large  quantity  of  mica.  There  is  scarcely  any  vegetation  upon  it,  and 
indeed,  from  its  steepness,  no  possibility  of  the  formation  of  a  soil. 
The  greatest  temples  are  at  an  elevation,  I  should  think,  of  about  3000 
feet,  estimating  the  greatest  height  at  3500.  They  are  built  of  the 
granite,  though  some  of  the  steps  and  staircases  are  formed  of  sand- 
stone from  the  plain  below.  They  are  works  of  prodigious  labour, 
and  are  executed  in  excellent  taste.  They  are  at  present  appropriated 
by  the  Jains,  but  the  most  ancient  and  remarkable  of  them  appear  to 
me  from  the  Dhagob,  and  other  arrangements,  to  be  undoubtedly 


1835.]  PARTIALLY  DECIPHERS  THE  ASOKA  EDICTS.  205 

Buddhist.  The  most  remarkable  Jain  images  in  them  are  those  of 
Neminatha,  not  much  exceeding  the  size  of  a  man,  black  and  orna- 
mented with  gold,  and  at  present  worshipped;  and  Bishabhdeva,  of 
a  colossal  size,  of  granite  covered  with  white  chunam:  and  Paras- 
natha.  In  the  inferior  parts  there  are  the  images  of  all  the  twenty- 
four  Tirthankars.  There  are  numerous  cells  in  the  courts  of  the 
temples,  and  places  adjoining,  which  were  probably  formerly  used  by 
the  priests.  At  present  the  only  persons  who  live  on  the  hill  are  the 
sepoys  who  guard  the  temples,  a  few  pujaris  (beadles),  and  pilgrims 
who  come  to  worship  and  who  may  sojourn  for  a  night  or  two.  I  was 
allowed  to  go  through  all  the  temples,  and  even  to  enter  the  shrines 
and  measure  the  idols. 

"  There  are  two  other  peaks  on  the  hill,  from  one  of  which  the 
Hindoos  who  get  tired  of  life  throw  themselves  down  in  the  hope  of 
making  a  speedy  journey  of  it  to  heaven.  I  did  not  think  of  visiting 
them  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  reaching  them.  There  was,  how- 
ever, a  staircase  leading  to  them,  as  to  the  peak  on  which  I  stood. 
The  view  from  the  top  of  Girnar  is  one  which  is  not  dearly  purchased 
at  the  expense  of  ascending  it.  It  embraces  the  adjoining  hills,  one 
of  which — the  Dhatar — vies  with  it  in  height,  and  an  immense  range 
of  low  country  extending  in  all  directions,  and,  toward  the  west, 
reaching  to  the  sea.  There  is  much  jungle  on  the  lower  hills:  and 
cultivation,  from  the  want  of  water,  is  not  very  extensive  in  the  low 
country.  Villages  appear  scattered  only  here  and  there. 

"  I  made  as  quick  a  descent  of  tjie  mountain  as  possible,  that  I 
might  reach,  before  the  darkness  of  night  settled  upon  me,  the  block 
of  granite  near  Joonagurh,  which  contains  the  ancient  inscriptions  which, 
though  never  deciphered,  have  attracted  much  attention.  I  was  able 
to  accomplish  the  object  which  I  had  in  view.  After  examining  the 
block  for  a  little,  and  comparing  the  letters  with  several  ancient  Sans- 
krita  alphabets  in  my  possession,  I  found  myself  able,  to  my  great  joy, 
and  that  of  the  Brahmans  who  were  with  me,  to  make  out  several 
words,  and  to  decide  as  to  the  probable  possibility  of  making  out  the 
whole.  The  taking  a  copy  of  the  inscriptions,  I  found,  from  their 
extent,  to  be  a  hopeless  task;  but,  as  Captain  Lang  had  kindly 
promised  to  procure  a  transcript  of  the  whole  for  me,  I  did  not  regret 
the  circumstance." 

But  one  spot  of  historical  and. idolatrous  interest  remained 
to  be  visited — that  Somnath  which  the  iconoclast  Muhammad 
of  Ghuznee  stripped  of  its  treasures,  and  the  so-called  gates 


206  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

of  which  Lord  Ellenborough  dreamed  that  he  would  restore  as 
an  act  of  political  and  religious  justice  which  the  Hindoos 
must  appreciate.  Lord  Ellenborough,  lashed  by  Macaulay's 
satire  in  the  House  of  Commons,  has  made  Somnath  more 
famous  than  did  even  the  first  Muhammadan  conqueror  of 
India.  Having  sailed  from  the  port  of  Joonagurh,  Verawul, 
Mr.  Wilson  rode  two  miles  to  the  Phallic  shrine  of  the  old 
temple. 

"  18th  March. — I  proceeded  to  both  the  new  and  old  temples  of 
Somnath.  The  former  was  built  by  the  famous  Alya  Bai  about  fifty 
years  ago,  and  it  is  now  under  the  care  of  the  Sompada  Brahmans, 
with  one  of  whom  I  conversed.  The  latter  is  that  of  which  the  image 
(a  linga)  was  destroyed  by  Muhammad  of  Ghuzni,  and  of  which  the 
most  extravagant  accounts  have  been  published.  The  greater  part  of 
the  building  (of  sandstone)  is  still  standing,  and  the  remains  of  its 
external  ornaments,  though  much  defaced  by  the  violence  of  the 
Mussulmans,  show  that,  as  pieces  of  art,  they  had  been  well  executed. 
Some  are  not  very  decent,  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
attempt  was  made  to  destroy  them.  The  Mussulman  conqueror  might 
find  treasure  about  the  premises,  but  most  certainly  it  was  not  within 
the  god,  who  had  neither  head  nor  belly." 

Thus,  unconsciously,  was  Mr.  Wilson  qualifying  himself 
for  those  political  references  to  him  on  the  subject  of 
Lord  Ellenborough's  Somnath  Gates'  Proclamation,  which 
in  1843  caused  the  laughter  of  Europe,  the  indignation  of  all 
Christian  men,  and  its  author's  recall.  Bombay  was  safely 
reached,  by  sea,  on  the  20th  March,  after  an  absence  of 
above  three  months.  The  survey  of  the  whole  Province 
of  Bombay  proper  was  now  complete. 

The  one,  the  only  one,  intolerable  trial  of  European  life 
in  India  had  already  begun  to  cast  its  shadow  over  the 
otherwise  unbroken  happiness  of  the  mission  family  at 
Ambrolie.  Eour  children  had  been  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Wilson,  and  of  these  one  had  died  in  infancy,  while  another 


1835.]  DEATH  OF  MARGARET  WILSON.  207 

was  soon  to  follow  him.  During  Mr.  Wilson's  absence  on 
his  tour  to  Goa  in  1834,  it  had  been  necessary  to  send  home 
their  eldest  boy,  Andrew,  who  has  since  distinguished  himself 
as  a  traveller  and  author  in  India,  China,  and  Great 
Britain.  Very  pathetic  are  the  references,  in  the  correspond- 
ence of  husband  and  wife,  to  these  deaths  and  that  separation. 
But  now  the  close  of  the  tour  of  1835  was  to  be  marked  by 
the  greatest  blow  of  all.  Dr.  Smyttan  had  urged  Mrs.  Wilson 
to  return  to  Scotland,  after  her  visit  to  Surat,  as  the  only 
means  of  saving  her  life.  "It  seems  worse  than  death  to 
part  from  my  husband;  but  if  I  must  indeed  go  the  Lord 
will  give  me  strength  for  the  hour  of  trial.  Dr.  Smyttan 
has  not  yet  mentioned  it  to  Mr.  Wilson;  he  is  afraid  of 
distressing  him,  and  he  wished  me  first  to  give  my  consent. 
This  I  can  never  do."  That  was  written  on  31st  March, 
just  after  Mr.  Wilson's  return,  to  a  lady  friend  the  baptism 
of  whose  child  she  had  attended  the  day  before.  On  the 
8th  April  she  wrote  to  her  boy  at  home  "the  last  letter 
that  your  dearest  mamma  will  ever  write  to  you;"  and  as 
she  laid  down  the  pen  exclaimed,  "  Now  I  am  ready  to  die." 
But  not  till  the  struggling  spirit  had  cared  for  the  Marathee 
girls  also,  for  she  ever  spoke  in  the  agony  of  dissolution  to 
them,  Anandie,  Yeshu  Christiavar  phar  priti  theva,  "0 
Anandie,  I  beseech  you,  greatly  love  Jesus  Christ ! "  "  The 
prospect  of  death  is  sweet,"  she  could  say  in  her  last  words. 
After  that,  and  on  the  19th  April,  the  Sabbath  morning  saw 
her  freed  from  the  body. 

It  is  all  such  a  tragedy,  and  on  its  human  side  so  common 
a  tragedy,  in  the  land  of  which  Great  Britain  has  taken  pos- 
session, by  the  dust  of  its  noblest  women  as  well  as  bravest 
men.  But  to  her  it  was  a  triumph.  Margaret  Wilson  was 
the  first,  as  she  was  with  Ann  Judson  the  greatest,  of  that 
band  of  woman  -  missionaries  whom  Great  Britain  and 
America  have  ever  since  given  to  India,  till  now  they  number 


208  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1835. 

some  two  hundred  who  are  living  and  dying  for  its  people. 
Her  sisters  soon  after  took  up  her  work,  and  her  husband 
published  a  very  popular  Memoir  of  her  life,1  which  the 
perusal  of  her  papers  enables  us  to  pronounce  within  the 
truth  in  the  representations  it  gives  of  her  intellectual  ability 
and  her  gracious  force  of  character.  To  her,  more  than  to 
any  other,  is  due  the  rapid  progress  of  female  education  in 
Bombay,  not  only  in  Christian  schools  but  in  Parsee,  Hindoo, 
and  even  Muhammadan  families. 

1  A  Memoir  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Wilson,  of  the  Scottish  Mission,  Bombay. 
Third  edition,  enlarged.     Edinburgh,  1840. 


CHAPTEK  VII. 

1836-1842. 
ZAND  SCHOLAESHIP  AND  THE  PARSEE  CONTROVERSY. 

Degree  of  D.D.  from  University  of  Edinburgh — First  Marriage  in  Native 
Church  of  Bombay — Dr.  "Wilson  first  English  Scholar  to  master  Zand  Texts — 
Fall  of  the  Persian  Empire — Migrations  of  the  Parsee  Fugitives — Sanjan  and 
Nowsaree,  "a  City  of  Priests" — First  Parsee  Settlers  in  Bembay —  Frater 
Paulinus  on  the  Lingua  Zendica — Anquetil  du  Perron's  Adventures — Professor 
Rask's  visit  to  India— Dr.  Wilson's  first  Zand  Studies  in  1831— Burnouf  s 
and  Westergaard's  Researches — Origin  of  the  Parsee  Controversy — An  Unhappy 
Editor—  "Goosequill"  and  "  Swanquill  "— The  Parsee  Sects— Dr.  Wilson's 
Lectures  on  the  "  Vandidad  " — The  Parsee  Sanhedrim  enter  the  Lists — E.  B. 
Eastwick's  Translation  of  the  "  Zartusht-Namah  " — Dr.  Wilson's  Work  on 
"The  Parsi  Religion  "—First  Zand  and  Pahlavi  types— Wilkins  and  Ward 
— Conversion  of  Dhunjeebhoy  Nowrojee — Hormasdjee  Pestonjee  follows — 
Persecution  of  Framjee — Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus — First  Vindication  in  India  of 
Civil  and  Religious  Rights  of  the  Natives — The  Bombay  Secular  Press  on  the 
Trial — League  of  the  Parsee  Priests  against  the  Missionaries — Appeal  to  the 
Court  of  Directors  and  Decision  in  Dr.  Wilson's  favour — Anti- Conversion 
Memorial  to  Governments  of  Bombay  and  India — Answered  by  Dr.  Wilson — 
Hormasdjee  receives  his  Wife  and  Daughter  at  last. 


"I  saw  a  book  in  Khiisrau's  royal  hall, 
Writ  in  the  Pahlavi,  for  so  they  call 
That  ancient  tongue  ;  the  great  arch-priest  of  fire 
Had  placed  it  there — chief  of  the  learned  choir. 
Within  the  book  in  varied  tale  were  told 
The  deeds  of  ancient  kings  and  heroes  old. 
There  too  the  Zandavasta's  sacred  line, 
Was  traced,  holy  Zartusht's  book  divine  ; 
And  there  the  story  of  his  wondrous  birth, 
And  all  that  marked  the  sage's  stay  on  earth. 
Time-worn  the  volume,  and  the  mystic  page 
Was  veiled  in  doubt,  and  dim  with  mists  of  age. 
Said,  then,  the  priest,  '  This  sacred  volume  see  ! 
By  this  in  heaven's  pure  faith  instructed  be.' 
Then  to  my  listening  ear  a  part  he  read, 
And  strong  emotion  through  his  bosom  spread. 
'  Learning,'  he  cried,  '  herein  would  much  avail, 
For  mark  this  long-forgotten  lore — this  tale 
Of  whom  none  knows  the  source — this  ancient  creed 
May  perish,  since  but  few  this  page  can  read. 
'Tis  best  that  you  this  tale  in  verse  should  dress, 
And  in  fair  Persia's  tongue  its  words  express. 

The  infant  Zartusht,  rescued  from  the  tomb, 
Again  is  sheltered  in  his  mother's  womb. 
Her  wound  is  healed,  by  mercy  from  above, 
And  Hell's  fierce  rage  is  foiled  by  heavenly  love. 
To  Daghdii,  then,  the  heavenly  stripling  said  ; — 
'  Arise,  nor  let  thy  heart  grow  faint  with  dread, 
Comfort  thee,  for  from  thee  a  child  shall  spring, 
On  whom  shall  rest  the  favour  of  heaven's  king. 
The  world  beholds  the  glad  event  with  joy, 
And  future  ages  hail  the  promised  boy." 

E.  B.  EASTWICK'S  Translation  of  Zartusht- Namah. 

11  Behold  !  Magi  from  the  East  came  to  Jerusalem,  saying,  '  Where  is  He 
that  is  born  King  of  the  Jews  ?  for  we  saw  His  star  in  the  East,  and  are  come 
to  worship  Him.'  " — ST.  MATTHEW'S  Gospel. 


1836.]     HONORARY  DEGREE  FROM  EDINBURGH  UNIVERSITY.       211 


CHAPTER    VII. 

WHEN,  on  the  7th  July  1836,  Mr.  Wilson  wrote  that  pleasant 
letter  to  his  old  friend  and  benefactor,  Mr.  J.  Jordan  Wilson, 
in  which  he  expressed  satisfaction  at  "  Mr.  Duffs  elevation 
to  a  Doctorship"  by  the  vigorous  University  of  Aberdeen, 
and  hinted  that  his  own  policy  of  vernacular  preaching 
would  probably  lead  the  Modern  Athens  to  pronounce  him  a 
"  babbler,"  like  Paul,  he  was  about  to  be  surprised  by  the 
receipt  of  the  parchment  diploma  from  his  own  University  of 
Edinburgh,  of  D.D.,  or  "  Sacrosanctae  Theologian  Doctor." 
The  learning  and  the  piety  of  his  native  country  were  as 
ready  to  mark  with  academic  approval  the  six  years'  career 
of  the  young  scholar  who  preached  and  wrote,  in  season  and 
out  of  season,  to  wise  and  simple,  in  the  vernacular  and 
classical  tongues  of  Western  India,  as  to  honour  the  briefer 
and  more  brilliant  work  of  his  fellow-missionary  who,  in 
Eastern  India,  had  begun  an  intellectual  as  well  as  spiritual 
revolution  which  was  already  affecting  even  Bombay  itself. 
Dr.  Duff,  driven  home  by  an  almost  fatal  disease,  was 
restored  to  feed  the  flame  of  apostolic  Evangelism  in  the 
churches  of  Great  Britain  and  America,  so  that  soon  Bombay 
and  Goojarat,  as  well  as  Madras,  Nagpore,  and  Calcutta, 
were  to  see  the  result  in  new  missions  and  fresh  missionaries 
worthy  of  such  pioneers.  Dr.  Wilson,  in  spite  of  the  com- 
parative solitude  of  bereavement,  and  not  unfrequent  sick- 
ness from  overwork  and  exposure,  was  to  be  enabled  to  carry 
on  his  loved  work  among  the  people  of  India  without  inter- 
ruption till  the  close  of  1842.  Thus,  at  every  successive 


212  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

period  the  gifts  and  the  labours  of  each  supplemented  those 
of  the  other,  while  specially  adapted  to  the  local  peculiarities 
of  the  provinces  and  the  communities  to  whom  they  gave 
their  lives;  and  both  combined  to  form  an  almost  perfect 
ideal  of  Christian  evangelisation  among  the  races  of  the  East. 
Certainly  the  diploma  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  as 
it  was  given  to  Wilson  after  the  old  fashion,  long  before 
the  modern  and  most  desirable  custom  of  bestowing  such 
academic  degrees  personally  and  in  public  had  originated, 
well  described  his  previous  function  as  a  teacher  of  divine 
Theology,  and  could  hardly  confer  on  him  any  new  power  or 
virtue  in  that  capacity.  The  interest  of  the  already  yellow 
parchment  lies  rather  in  the  names  of  some  of  the  men  who 
signed  it,  among  whom  we  find,  besides  Principal  Baird,  such 
medical  professors  as  Alison  and  Traill,  Ballingall  and  Syme, 
and  Sir  Eobert  Christison  still  spared  to  the  city;  Thomas 
Chalmers  and  David  Welsh;  Sir  William  Hamilton  and 
James  D.  Forbes;  Macvey  Napier,  and  that  other  John 
Wilson  who  taught  poetry,  criticism,  and  all  the  humanities, 
under  the  name  of  Moral  Philosophy.  Such  men  declared : — 
"  Testatum  volumus  Eeverendum  virum,  Joannem  Wilson, 
apud  Bombay,  hujus  Academiae  olim  Alumnum,  Sacrosanctaa 
Theologiae  Doctoris  titulum  consecutum  esse ;  eique  amplis- 
simam  potestatem  Sacrosanctam  Theologiam  ubique  gentium 
Legendi,  Docendi,  Profitendi  concessam,  aliaque  omnia 
Privilegia,  Immunitates,  Jura,"  etc.,  etc.  Never  before,  and 
probably  never  since,  has  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity,  even  when  conferred  by  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh, had  so  honest  a  significance  as  this,  which  was  signed 
on  the  4th  of  May  1836.  He  thus  acknowledged  it,  in  a 
letter  to  Professor  Brunton,  which  also  gives  us  some  glimpses 
of  the  progress  of  female  education  and  society  : — 

"BOMBAY,  1 6th  September  1836. — I  received  your  letter  of  the 
28th  May,  on  the  fiftieth  day  after  its  date!     I  am  quite  overwhelmed 


1836.]          FIRST  MARRIAGE  IN  NATIVE  CHURCH,  BOMBAY.          213 

with  your  kindness ;  and  I  shall  not  attempt  to  express  my  sense  of 
the  obligations  under  which  it  has  placed  me.  The  diploma  was 
unexpected  by  me ;  and  I  fear  that  it  will  prove  only  a  generous  pay- 
ment in  advance  for  work  which  may  never  be  performed.  I  desire 
to  view  it,  however,  as  a  new  call  to  cultivate  personal  humility,  to 
abound  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  both  by  writing  and  speech 
to  the  perishing  multitudes  around  me,  and  to  unfold  for  the  compas- 
sion of  the  benevolent,  as  opportunities  offer,  the  systems  of  transcen- 
dental speculation  and  gross  superstition,  which  exercise  such  a 
destructive  sway  in  the  regions  of  Asia.  I  have  already  used  my  new 
title  in  a  Persian  pamphlet  which  I  have  just  published,  entitled 
Raddi-i-Din  Musalmdnl,  or  Kefutation  of  Muhammadanism.  My  grate- 
ful acknowledgments  are  due  to  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

"  The  School  for  Destitute  Poor  Native  Girls  now  contains  fifty-five 
scholars,  who  are  all  making  satisfactory  progress.  The  eldest  of  the 
two  girls  connected  with  it,  whom  I  lately  baptised,  has  been  married 
by  me  to  one  of  the  Brahman  converts,  and  this,  the  first  virtuous 
union  of  natives  formed  in  the  bosom  of  the  Protestant  Church  in 
Bombay,  promises  to  promote  the  happiness  of  both  the  parties.  The 
marriage  was  honoured  by  the  attendance  of  several  friends  of  the 
mission,  and  by  many  natives.  I  embraced  the  opportunity  which  it 
afforded  me  of  entering  into  a  contrast  between  the  injunctions  of  the 
Christian  Scriptures  and  the  Hindoo  Shastres  relative  to  the  treatment 
of  females.  The  Parsee  inhabitants  of  a  street  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  mission-house,  have  placed  under  me  the  whole  disposal  of  the 
juvenile  population,  including  sixteen  girls,  for  instruction  through  the 
medium  of  Goojaratee,  a  circumstance  which  has  afforded  me  the 
highest  delight.  Altogether,  there  are  upwards  of  180  girls  educating 
in  connection  with  the  mission." 

To  his  discussions  with  Brahmans  and  Moulvies,  Jains 
and  Jews,  in  the  central  seat  of  Bombay,  and  in  many 
of  its  districts  and  feudatory  principalities,  Dr.  Wilson  had 
added  that  which  proved  to  be  the  most  important  of  all. 
Alike  as  a  scholar  and  a  missionary,  his  writings  on  the 
Zand  language  and  literature,  and  his  spiritual  and  social 
influence  among  the  Parsees,  take  the  highest  place.  He 
was  the  first  English  scholar  to  master  the  original  Zand 
texts,  according  to  the  admission  of  the  "  irritabile  genus  "  of 


214 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1836. 


pure  Orientalists,  as  represented  by  the  late  Dr.  Haug,1 
who  would  in  no  wise  give  due  credit  to  his  German  rival, 
Spiegel,  the  present  able  representative  of  Zand  scholarship 
in  Europe.  And  Dr.  Wilson  was  the  first  missionary  to 
educate  and  admit  to  the  Christian  Church  two  converts 
from  the  faith  of  Zoroaster,  who  still  adorn  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland  and  the  Baptist  Church  respectively, 
as  ordained  ministers. 

The  Parsees,  the  people  of  Pars  or  Ears  which  the  Greeks 
called  Persis,  after  having  ruled  Western  Asia  from  the  Black 
Sea  to  the  Indus  from  before  Kai  Khoshru,  or  Cyrus  the 
Great,  fell  victims  to  the  same  intolerance  which  they  had 
shown  against  every  other  faith,  whether  idolatrous  or  Chris- 
tian as  in  the  case  of  the  long-suffering  Armenians.  In 
A.D.  658,  Yezdijird  III.,  the  last  of  the  Sassanian  kings,  saw 
his  army  spoiled  of  its  sacred  banner,  the  jewelled  apron  of 
Kawa,  on  the  fatal  field  of  Kadseah.  That  palladium  gone,  a 
few  years  more  left  the  empire  of  Cyrus  extinguished  at  Naha- 
vand,  not  far  from  that  capital  of  Hamadan,  to  which  the 
Jewess  Esther  has  given  an  immortality  greater  than  that  of 
Cyrus  or  of  Artaxerxes  her  husband.  The  mound  is  still  seen  at 
Toorkman  Merv  where  Yezdijird  found  a  grave  after  miserable 
wanderings,  while  all  of  his  surviving  host  who  did  not  apos- 
tatise bore  with  them  the  sacred  fire  to  the  hills  of  Khorassan. 
Thence  the  Kaliph  Omar  and  his  successors  drove  them  south 
to  the  sea,  to  the  caves  of  Ormuz  of  which  Milton  sings, 
though  its  wealth  and  splendour  were  of  later  date  and  Por- 
tuguese origin,  on  to  Diu  off  Kathiawar,  and  so  to  Sanjan  in 
Goojarat.  There,  in  717,  they  found  an  asylum  for  three 
centuries,  and  became  partially  Hindooised.  Eor,  explain  it 
away  as  their  Anglicised  descendants  may,  "the  fair,  the 
fearless,  the  valiant,  and  the  athletic  Parsees,"  obtained  pro- 

1    Essays  on  the  Sacred  Language,  Writings,  and  Religion  of  the  Parsees, 
by  Martin  Haug,  Dr.  Phil. :  Bombay,  1862,  page  28. 


1836.]  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  PARSEES  IN  INDIA.  215 

tection  from  the  Eana  Jadao  by  a  denial  of  that  very  mono- 
theism from  which,  in  its  Muhammadan  form,  they  had  fled, 
and  which  in  controversy  they  now  claim  to  hold.  In  six- 
teen distichs  of  corrupt  Sanscrit,  drawn  up  after  some  days 
of  deliberation,  they  professed  to  worship  the  sun,  the  five 
elements,  Hormuzd,  chief  of  the  Suras  or  angels,  and  the 
cow;  and  described  their  ritual  and  customs.  Eegarding 
them,  evidently,  as  only  another  sect  of  Hindoos,  the  Eana 
assisted  them  to  build  their  fire-temple,  and  there  they  con- 
tinued to  flourish,  sending  forth  settlements  to  the  neighbour- 
ing districts.  As  the  Muhammadan  power  grew  in  Western 
India  their  old  enemy  found  them  out,  and  they  fled  with 
their  sacred  fire  to  the  jungle  of  Wasanda  from  the  assault 
of  Sultan  Mahmood  Begoda  of  Ahmedabad,  in  1507,  though 
not  without  showing  a  courage  in  defence  of  their  Hindoo 
protectors  worthy  of  their  fathers.  When  the  danger  passed 
by  they  sought  a  resting-place  in  that  Goojaratee  town  of 
Nowsaree,  where  Dr.  Wilson  found  their  earliest  temples  and 
MSS.  during  his  northern  tour.  Surat  was  not  far  off,  and 
thither  not  a  few  Parsees  carried  their  intelligence  and  enter- 
prise to  the  service  of  the  European  traders.  Sir  Nicholas 
Waite's  Parsee  broker,  for  instance,  still  lives  in  the  early 
annals  as  a  clever  but  by  no  means  honest  fellow.  The 
family  of  Ardeshir  Dhunjeesha  of  Surat  was  founded  by  a 
Parsee  whose  ability  made  him  the  favourite  of  the  Great 
Moghul  at  Agra,  and  enabled  him  to  obtain  commercial 
privileges  for  his  English  friends.  Muncherjee  Seth  did 
similar  service  to  the  Dutch.  As  Surat  rose  into  importance 
Nowsaree  became,  what  it  still  is,  the  city  of  the  Parsee 
priests.1  At  an  early  period  the  community  attracted  the 
attention  of  Kerridge,  the  English  Governor  of  Surat ;  and  in 
1616  he  urged  Henry  Lord,  the  first  English  chaplain  there, 

1  See  The  Parsees :  Their  History,  Manners,  Customs,  and  Religion.     By 
Dosabhoy  Framjee,  who  is  a  valued  official  of  the  Government  of  Bombay. 


216 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1836. 


to  study  thoroughly  the  religions  of  both  Hindoos  and  Par- 
sees.  Lord's  materials  were  used  by  Sir  Thomas  Herbert  in 
his  valuable  work ;  and  by  the  French  traveller  Bernier,  in 
his  letter  to  M.Chapelain,  on  "Lord's  Discovery  of  Two  Foreign 
Sects." 

When  Bombay  became  English,  and  was  opened  as  a  free 
city  to  all  the  native  communities  of  Western  India,  Asia, 
and  Eastern  Africa,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Parsees  were  the 
first  to  take  advantage  of  English  rule  there.  Three  years 
after  its  settlement,  Dr.  Fryer  found,  on  the  top  of  Malabar 
Hill,  "a  Parsee  tomb  (or  tower  of  silence)  lately  raised." 
Indeed,  one  Dorabjee  Nanabhoy  had  held  office  there  during 
the  Portuguese  occupation,  and  his  services  were  found  in- 
valuable when  the  English  took  possession.  His  son  drove  off 
the  Seedee  pirates,  and  received  the  hereditary  distii;ction  of 
Patel  or  lord  of  the  fishermen  whom  he  led  on  that  occasion, 
an  honour  still  valued  by  the  family,  who  have  become  great 
merchants  from  China  to  London.  The  English  shipwright 
who  built  the  East  India  Company's  vessels  at  Bombay 
tempted  one  Lowjee  to  leave  Surat,  and  his  descendants  have, 
ever  since  the  foundation  of  the  dockyard  in  1*735,  held  the 
position  of  master  builder.  The  great  and  wealthy  clans  of 
Shet  Khandans,  Dadyshets,  and  Banajees,  still  trace  their 
prosperity  to  the  happy  day  when  their  ancestors  settled 
under  the  Company's  flag  in  the  Fort  of  Bombay.  It  was  in 
1*780  that  a  Dadyshet  built  the  first  of  the  three  fire-temples 
in  the  island.  The  latest  census  shows  that  the  whole  Parsee 
community  under  British  rule  number  70,000,  of  whom  a 
third  are  in  the  city  of  Bombay.  There  are  some  in  Persia. 

For  a  community  with  such  a  history,  language,  and 
sacred  literature,  whose  influence,  in  spite  of  their  compara- 
tively small  number,  was  half  a  century  ago  far  beyond  that 
of  the  leading  men  of  all  the  other  races  and  sects  in  India, 
nothing  had  been  done  in  a  high  educational  sense  before  Dr. 


1836.]  ZAND  SCHOLARS  PREVIOUS  TO  DR.  WILSON.  217 

Wilson's  arrival  in  Bombay.  Save  a  few  of  their  priests 
they  themselves  were  ignorant  of  their  sacred  books. 
The  little  that  Lord  had  been  able  to  communicate  to 
Europe  regarding  them  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  had  been  independently  followed  up  by  a  Jesuit 
missionary,  whose  undoubtedly  rich  contributions  to  early 
Zand  and  Sanscrit  scholarship  Dr.  Haug  overlooks  in  his 
history  of  the  researches  into  the  sacred  writings  and  religion 
of  the  Parsees.  John  Philip  Werdin,  born  of  peasant  parents 
in  1748  in  South  Austria,  went  out  in  1774  to  the  Malabar 
coast  as  Prater  Paulinus,  devoted  himself  for  fourteen  years 
to  the  study  of  Sanscrit  and  Zand,  as  well  as  the  languages  of 
South  India,  and  returned  to  Eome,  from  which,  when  secretary 
to  the  congregation  of  the  Propaganda,  he  issued  at  least 
twenty  great  works,  mostly  quarto  volumes,  on  the  classical 
languages,  literatures  and  customs  of  the  peoples  of  India. 
Of  these  the  smallest  was  his  De,  Antiquitate  et  Affinitate 
Linguae  Zendicae  et  Samscradamicae  Germanicae  Dissertatio.1 
The  examples  of  Paulinus,  and  many  previous  Jesuit  mission- 
aries like  Hanxleden,  go  far  to  justify  Cardinal  Wiseman's 
assertion  that  the  Hindoo  languages  and  literature  were  first 
systematically  studied  in  Eome.  But  in  Eome,  also,  the 
researches,  or  the  manuscripts  on  which  they  were  based,  were 
as  carefully  buried  as  the  documents  in  the  case  of  Gallileo 
Gallilei,  till  the  first  Napoleon  carried  these  off  from  the 
Vatican,  and  restored  them  only  on  the  promise  that  they 
should  be  published. 

Not  less  a  polemic  than  Paulinus  was  Anquetil  du  Perron, 
the  young  theological  student  of  Paris,  who  first  brought  the 
Zand  texts  to  Europe,  and  translated  them,  after  a  fashion, 
into  French.  Stumbling  on  a  manuscript  of  the  Vandidad  in 

1  See  my  sketch  "India  and  Comparative  Philology,"  in  the  Calcutta 
Review,  vol.  xxix.  (1857).  His  Italian  work,  Viaggio  alle]  Indie  Orientali, 
was  translated  into  German,  and  thence  into  English,  in  1800,  and  deserves 
perusal  still. 


218 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1836. 


the  king's  library,  one  of  the  few  probably  brought  to  Europe 
by  Bourchier  or  Dr.  Eraser,  he  abandoned  the  church  for  the 
life  of  a  private  soldier,  that  he  might  find  his  way  out  to 
India.  He  sailed  in  the  French  expedition  of  1745.  Know- 
ing Hebrew,  Arabic,  and  Persian,  he  set  himself  to  Sanscrit, 
and  such  a  study  of  the  people  as  could  best  be  made  during 
long  journeys  on  foot  from  Chandernagore  to  Pondichery  on 
the  east  coast,  and  from  Mahe  to  Surat  on  the  west  coast. 
At  Surat  the  support  of  the  French  government  enabled  him 
to  fee  Dustoor  Darab,  one  of  the  most  learned  high  priests 
of  the  Parsees,  to  instruct  him  in  both  Zand  and  Pahlavi,  and 
to  sell  him  manuscripts.  Suspecting  that  he  was  being 
deceived,  as  later  scholars  like  Wilford  were,  by  the  Brah- 
mans,  he  bribed  other  priests  also,  till  he  was  satisfied  as 
to  the  honesty  of  Darab.  For  six  years,  during  which  he 
collected  a  hundred  and  eighty  MSS.  in  all  the  sacred 
languages  of  the  country,  he  pursued  his  researches,  and  then 
he  determined  to  settle  at  Benares  for  the  composition  of  a 
work  on  the  whole  history,  literature,  and  antiquities  of  India. 
The  fall  of  Pondichery  to  the  English  arms  forced  him  to 
return  to  France.  He  visited  Oxford  on  the  way,  where  he 
laid  the  foundation  of  a  quarrel  with  Sir  William  Jones,  and 
so  led  the  learned  of  Europe  into  the  error,  which  Dr.  Wilson 
was  the  first  completely  to  dissipate,  that  Zand,  instead  of 
being  the  elder  sister  of  the  Sanscrit,  was  that  monstrous 
impossibility — an  invented  or  forged  language.1  France 
honoured  the  scholar,  as,  since  Colbert,  she  had  always  perse- 
cuted the  soldiers  and  statesmen  who  would  have  given  her 

1  At  so  late  a  period  as  the  year  1855  Mr.  Homer,  an  experienced  Bombay 
civilian,  who  ought  to  have  known  better,  wrote  a  monograph  with  the  title 
Zend  ;  Is  it  an  Original  Language  ?  Strictly  Zand  is  the  commentary  on  the 
Avasta  or  "Word"  of  the  Parsee  scriptures,  and  hence  the  language  of  the 
commentary.  Pahlavi,  probably  at  first  the  language  of  the  province  of 
Pahlav,  is  the  language  of  the  Sassanian  inscriptions.  Pazand  is  applied  to 
the  purely  Iranian  versions  of  Pahlavi  texts  in  Avasta  or  Persian  characters. 
See  Haug's  Essays,  second  edition. 


1836.]  HIS  EARLIEST  ZAND  RESEARCHES.  219 

an  eastern  empire,  and  in  1771  lie  published  his  Zend-Avesta. 
The  Kevolution  drove  him  into  that  obscurity  which  alone 
was  safety,  and  when  he  died  in  1805  he  was  occupied  on  a 
new  French  edition  of  the  Viaggio  of  his  old  rival  Paulinus. 
A  century  before,  Hyde  had  published  his  learned  apology  for 
Zoroastrianism,  in  his  Historia  Religionis  Veterum  Persarum 
Eorumque  Magorum,  but  he  could  not  read  the  MSS.  of  which 
he  professed  to  give  a  criticism.  Du  Perron's  manuscripts, 
the  dictations  of  Darab  and  the  other  priests,  as  still  to  be 
found  in  the  National  Library  of  Paris,  and,  above  all,  the 
two  quartos  of  his  Zend-Avesta,  became  the  stream  from  which 
all  subsequent  scholars  drank,  till  the  Danish  Eask  and  the 
Scottish  Wilson  went  to  the  fountain-head. 

In  the  course  of  a  philological  tour  of  Europe,  Africa,  and 
Asia,  the  Scandinavian  scholar  Eask  visited  Bombay  to  study 
Zand.  In  1826  he  used  the  collection  which  he  had  purchased 
for  the  Copenhagen  Library  in  the  production  of  his  small 
work  on  the  age  and  genuineness  of  the  Zand  language.  In 
that  he  justified  by  new  proofs  the  conclusions  of  Paulinus 
and  Du  Perron  as  to  its  relation  to  the  Sanscrit,  but  refused 
to  follow  the  latter  in  his  conclusions  as  to  the  antiquity  of 
Zoroaster.  For  Eask  was  the  first  to  make  out  the  law  of  the 
transposition  of  sounds  with  which  Bopp's  name  is  con- 
nected. Five  years  afterwards  Dr.  Wilson,  prompted  by  the 
scholar's  enthusiasm,  but,  along  with  that,  by  the  more  con- 
suming fire  which  inflamed  all  his  life,  thus  wrote  to  the 
secretary  of  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society,  the  first  of  his 
draft  letters  which  we  can  find  specially  referring  to  the 
Parsees : — 

"BOMBAY,  24^  July  1831.  .  .  .  I  have  now  regularly  delivered  a 
lecture  on  Systematic  Theology  on  Wednesday  evenings  during  the  last 
sixteen  weeks.  My  audience,  which  consists  partly  of  Europeans  and 
partly  of  Natives,  has  been  respectable.  Ten  of  my  lectures  were 
devoted  to  the  consideration  of  the  testimony  which  is  afforded  by  the 


220  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

light  of  Nature  to  the  existence,  attributes,  and  moral  government  of 
God  ;  and  to  the  duty  and  destiny  of  man.  Two  of  them  were 
occupied  in  forming  an  estimate  of  the  discoveries  of  the  light  of  Nature, 
and  in  evincing  the  possibility  and  desirableness  of  a  direct  Revelation. 
I  am  at  present  engaged  in  the  consideration  of  the  inquiry,  Where  is 
a  direct  Revelation  to  be  found  ;  and  I  have  spent  four  evenings  in  the 
discussion  of  the  claims  of  the  Parsee  religion.  I  have  been  requested 
to  publish  my  observations  upon  it ;  but  I  have  agreed  only  to  the 
present  printing  of  such  of  them  as  refer  to  the  "Vendidad  Sade," 
which  is  the  most  authoritative  work  acknowledged  by  the  followers  of 
Zoroaster.  I  intend,  God  willing,  to  comply  with  the  wishes  of  my 
friends  by  preparing  a  work  embracing  an  analysis  of  all  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Parsis,  a  particular  view  of  their  religious  history  so  far 
as  it  can  be  ascertained,  and  a  description  of  their  manners  and  customs. 
I  have  for  a  long  time  been  prosecuting  inquiries  connected  with  these 
subjects  ;  and  I  have  lately  procured  some  documents  which  throw 
great  light  upon  them.  When  I  last  wrote  to  you  I  had  not  the 
intention  which  I  now  avow  ;  but  many  circumstances  have  conspired, 
and  especially  the  encouragement  which  I  have  received  from  some  of 
my  friends  to  whose  judgment  I  bow  with  deference,  the  readiness 
of  the  natives  to  make  communications  to  me — the  probable  useful- 
ness of  the  work  in  leading  them  to  inquiry  and  in  assisting  future 
missionaries — which  they  have  hitherto  withheld  from  other  Europeans, 
have  led  me  to  come  to  a  determination  on  the  subject.  I  have  access 
to  most  of  the  books  published  in  Europe  which  treat  of  the  Parsees. 
There  is  one  little  work  which  I  cannot  find  here  which  I  should  like 
to  see.  It  is  The  Sacred  Oracles  of  Zoroaster,  published  in  Greek,  at 
Amsterdam,  in  1689.  It  is  not  considered  genuine  ;  but  some  of  the 
passages  which  I  have  seen  objected  to  as  inconsistent  with  the  opinions 
of  Zoroaster  appear  to  me  to  be  consonant  with  them.  If  you  should 
see  a  copy  advertised  in  any  of  the  catalogues  I  shall  feel  much  obliged 
to  you  if  you  will  purchase  it  for  me." 

It  was  not  till  1833  that  there  appeared  the  Commentary 
on  the  Yasna,  or  Parsee  prayer-book,  based  on  Neriosingh's 
Sanscrit  translation,  by  Eugene  Burnouf,  whom  we  shall 
meet  again  as  one  of  Dr.  Wilson's  correspondents.  Nor  was 
it  till  1841  that  the  other  Danish  scholar,  Westergaard,  arrived 
in  Bombay,  where  he  was  long  Dr.  Wilson's  guest,  and 
received  that  self-sacrificing  assistance  which  enabled  him  to 


1836.]  OCCASION  OF  THE  PARSEE  CONTROVERSY.  221 

give  to  the  world  the  first  complete  edition  of  the  still  extant 
text  of  the  Avasta,  "translated  with  a  dictionary  grammar, 
etc.,"  in  1852-54.  There  were  two  men  in  Bombay  on  Dr. 
Wilson's  arrival  who  further  stimulated  him  to  vindicate  the 
reputation  of  the  capital  in  which  most  of  the  Parsees  were 
to  be  found.  Sir  John  Malcolm,  in  one  of  his  earliest 
addresses  to  the  Asiatic  Society  there,  had  declared  that,  in 
the  first  instance,  Bombay  must  be  specially  looked  to  for  an 
elucidation  of  the  ancient  Zoroastrian  faith.  Mr.  William 
Erskine,  son-in-law  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  and  historian  of 
Baber  and  Hoomayoon,  had  frequently  contributed  to  its 
"  transactions  "  papers  on  the  ancient  religion  of  Persia,  which, 
indeed,  had  led  the  king  of  Denmark  to  send  Professor  Eask 
to  India. 

The  occasion  of  Dr.  Wilson's  first  encounter  with  the 
Parsees  was  his  publication  in  1831  of  a  review  of  the  work 
of  Elisaeus  on  the  History  of  Vartan  and  the  Battle  of  the 
Armenians,  containing  an  Account  of  the  Religious  War  between 
the  Persians  and  Armenians,  translated  by  that  accomplished 
Christian  Jew,  Karl  Friedrich  Neumann,  who  had  just  visited 
China,  and  who  died  at  Berlin  a  few  years  ago.  It  was 
necessary  for  the  critic  to  give  a  very  brief  and  general 
account  of  the  religious  works  of  the  Parsees,  and  not  without 
the  hope  that  the  statement  would  rouse  some  apologist  on 
the  other  side.  Two  weeks  after  a  Parsee  appealed  to  the 
editor  of  the  Samachar,  a  respectable  Goojaratee  newspaper, 
to  say  whether,  as  the  writer  believed,  the  account  of  the 
Parsee  religion  was  incorrect.  "  Do  the  Shets,"  he  asked,  the 
respectable  native  gentlemen,  "  and  those  skilled  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  belief,  intend  to  say  nothing  in  refutation  ? " 
The  cautious  editor  declined  the  challenge  for  himself,  but 
added,  "  if  it  be  thought  advisable  by  the  intelligent  of  our 
tribe,  we  shall  give  it  a  reconsideration."  This  led  Dr. 
Wilson  to  acknowledge  that  he  was  the  author  of  the  review, 


222 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1836. 


and  to  declare  his  willingness  to  publish  whatever  might  be 
written  in  reply  to  it.     "  Tell  me  your  whole  mind.  .  .  .  You 
say  that  we  reproach  the  Hindoo  and  Parsee  religions,  but 
we  declare  only  what  is  true  respecting  them.     We  reason, 
but  we  use  no  violence.     We  enter  into  discussion  that  truth 
may  appear,  and  we  say  to  all,  '  Inquire/  "      The  unhappy 
editor  did  not  like  the  trouble  of  such  rationalism.     "  Permit 
us,  permit  us  to  follow  the  road  on  which  we  have  been 
travelling,  for  at  last  all  roads  meet  in  one  point ;  there  is 
no  Eedeemer  of  any,"  he  said.     "  If  our  friend  the  writer, 
John  Wilson   (may  the   grace   of  God   be  upon  him!),  is 
desirous  of  drawing  us  into  a  discussion  of  this  character,  we 
plainly  say  to  him  that  it  is  not  suitable  to  us."     But  "  if 
any  pundit,  religious  officer,  or  intelligent  person  of  one  of 
the  castes  to  which  he  has  referred  should  fulfil  his  wish,  we 
are  perfectly  indifferent  in  the  matter,  and  feel  neither  joy 
nor  sorrow."     In  the  next  number  Dr.  Wilson  slew  the  slain 
delusion  with  the  same  kindly  but  uncompromising  sympathy 
that   marked  all  his  relations  with  the  natives,  and  not  in 
vain.     All  native  Bombay  was  talking  of  this  new  challenge, 
when  a  bold  printer,  who  had  issued  the  prospectus  of  another 
journal,  promised  to  publish  and  circulate  gratuitously  all 
that  should  be  sent  to  him  on  either  side  till  he  could  estab- 
lish  his   paper.     So  Nowrozjee   Mobed   Darabjee — a  moled 
being  the  middle  priest,  as  a  dustoor  is  above  him  and  a  Jierlad 
below  him — printed  on  excellent  paper  a  series  of  pamphlets 
in  royal  quarto  form.     The  champion  of  Zoroaster  signed  him- 
self, "  Nauroz  Goosequill,"  which  he  changed  to  "  Swanquill," 
when  he   realised  that  he  exposed  himself  to  the  jocular 
charge  of  being  a  goose.     It  was  sometimes  to  Dr.  Wilson  a 
matter  of  doubt  whether  his  opponent  was  in  real  earnest  as 
regards  much  which  fell  from  his  pen.     GoosequuTs  denial 
that  the  Bundeshne  or  Cosmogony,  which  Dr.  Wilson  had 
exposed,  was  one  of  the  Parsee   scriptures,   brought  down 


1836.]  HIS  PKOGRESS  IN  THE  STUDY  OF  ZAND.  223 

upon  him  his  co-religionists,  and  the  most  sacred  of  all,  the 
Dustoor  Eduljee  Darabjee,  who  had  translated  it  into  the 
vernacular  Goojaratee.  Believing  the  would-be  defender  of 
Parseeism  to  be  a  Sadducee  of  the  opposite  sect  of  the  Kad- 
mees,  the  high  priest  became  a  challenger  in  his  turn. 
Goosequill  was  equal  to  the  work  of  destruction,  and  exposed 
the  puerile  book  in  a  style  which  astonished  the  community 
who  had  accepted  it  as  a  popular  digest  of  their  faith.  It  was 
not  difficult  for  Dr.  Wilson  to  intervene  at  this  stage  and 
show  that  all  his  objections  to  the  Bundeshne  applied  to  the 
Vandidad.  His  reply  covered  sixteen  chapters,  which 
appeared  in  as  many  numbers  of  the  Goojaratee  paper,  and 
these  he  afterwards  condensed  into  a  lecture  on  the  Vandi- 
dad, which  he  delivered  to  both  natives  and  Europeans,  and 
published  at  their  request. 

We  find  this  account  of  his  progress  in  Zand  research  in 
his  great  work  on  The  Parsi  Eeligion,  in  which  that  lecture 
is  incorporated,  and  the  whole  writings  and  system  of  the 
Parsees  are  submitted  to  a  critical  analysis  :•*— 

"  My  remarks  on  the  Yandidad  were  founded  principally  on  the 
French  translation  of  Anquetil  du  Perron,  published  in  1771.  '  From 
his  version,'  I  observed,  ( and  with  an  occasional  reference  to  the 
Goojaratee  translation  and  original  [Zand],  which  I  was  enabled  to 
inspect  through  the  assistance  of  a  learned  Parsee,  I  have  made  an 
English  version,  to  which  I  shall  appeal.  I  have  a  considerable  degree 
of  confidence  that,  in  all  essential  points,  my  quotations  will  be  found 
correct.'  Since  the  publication  of  my  lecture  I  have  been  enabled  to 
devote  considerable  attention  to  the  Zand  language,  the  key  to  which  I 
obtained  in  the  interlineary  Goojaratee  Translation  and  Paraphrase  of 
the  late  Framjee  Aspandidrjee,  in  the  Commentaire  sur  le  Yagna  of  M. 
Burnouf,  and  Bopp's  Comparative  Grammar  of  the  Sanskrit,  Zand,  and 
OtJier  Languages,  and  by  following  out  the  philological  inquiries  which 
the  language  itself  suggests.  Though  I  have  found  that  it  is  not 
difficult  to  improve  upon  Anquetil's  version,  I  have  also  seen  that,  for 
the  purpose  of  ordinary  theological  discussion,  it  is,  generally  speaking, 
sufficiently  accurate.  The  principal  object  of  my  lecture  is  to  prove 
that  the  Vandidad  has  no  claim  to  be  considered  a  divine  revelation. 


224  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

The  position  which  I  lay  down  respecting  it  I  endeavour  to  support  by 
the  following  remarks : — There  are  no  proofs  of  its  authenticity, 
genuineness,  or  credibility.  The  Vandidad  Sade  is  very  defective  as  a 
rule  of  faith.  The  Vandidad  robs  God  of  all  his  glory,  inasmuch  as 
it  represents  the  supreme  God  as  inactive,  as  disregardful  of  the  con- 
cerns of  the  universe,  and  as  having  surrendered  the  administration  of 
affairs  to  Hormazd.  The  Vandidad  gives  a  highly  irrational  account 
of  the  origin  and  operations  of  natural  good  and  evil ;  teaches  and 
recognises  the  deification  of  the  elements,  and  other  inanimate  objects  ; 
gives  an  erroneous  view  of  the  natural  state  of  man  ;  contains  gross 
scientific  blunders  ;  prescribes  an  immense  number  of  absurd  cere- 
monies ;  ascribes  an  absurd  power  or  influence  to  the  ceremonies 
which  it  recommends ;  represents  ceremonial  observances  as  more 
important  than  moral  observances  ;  contains  some  passages  directly 
opposed  to  morality  :  does  not  propose  a  reasonable  scheme  of  salva- 
tion ;  does  not  give  a  becoming  account  of  the  future  state.  The 
doctrines  of  the  Vandidad  on  the  matters  here  adverted  to  are  con- 
trasted throughout  with  those  of  the  sacred  Scriptures." 

Had  not  Gibbon,  with  all  his  desire  to  exalt  Zoroastrian- 
ism  at  a  time  when  his  knowledge  was  necessarily  imperfect 
and  not  derived  from  the  texts  themselves,  confessed  that 
"  in  that  motley  composition,  dictated  by  reason  and  passion, 
by  enthusiasm  and  by  selfish  motives,  some  useful  and 
sublime  truths  were  disgraced  by  a  mixture  of  the  most 
abject  and  dangerous  superstition  ? " 

The  discussion  was  now  anxiously  taken  up  by  the 
Parsee  Sanhedrim,  known  as  the  Punchayat — etymologically, 
council  of  five — a  body  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  members, 
empowered  by  Governor  Hornby  in  1778  to  deal  with  purely 
tribal  offenders  to  the  extent  of  beating  them  with  shoes. 
The  Dustoors  attacked  Dr.  Wilson's  lecture  in  the  Jam-i- 
Jamshid,  the  reformers  and  Dr.  Wilson  replied  in  the  Har- 
karah  and  Vartaman.  The  former  adopted  the  position  that 
the  names  of  the  dual  principles  of  good  and  evil  in  the 
Zoroastrian  system,  Hormuzd  and  Ahriman,  are  purely  para- 
bolical :  that  they  have  an  esoteric  meaning  not  intended  for 
the  ignorant,  and  that  the  childish  and  worse  than  Talmudic- 


1836.]     MIRACLES  OF  CHRIST  AND  LEGEND  OF  ZOROASTER.       225 

miracles  ascribed  to  Zoroaster  are  as  well  authenticated  as 
those  of  Christ.  One  of  Dr.  Wilson's  brief  rejoinders  con- 
tains this  passage,  of  striking  significance  in  the  light  of  the 
conversion  of  the  two  Parsee  young  men  soon  after  : — 

" '  It  appears  wonderful  to  the  Zoroastrian  that  God  should  have  so 
loved  the  world  as  to  give  his  only-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.  If  he 
will  inquire  into  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  which  are  neither  few 
nor  small,  he  will  find  that  what  is  wonderful  in  this  instance  is  also 
true.  If  the  Zoroastrian  will  reflect  on  the  nature  of  sin  he  will 
perceive  that  it  is  an  infinite  evil ;  that  no  efforts  of  his  own  can  of 
themselves  remove  that  sin  which  has  been  already  committed  ;  and 
that,  if  salvation  be  obtained  at  all,  it  must  be  through  the  merit  of  a 
divine  substitute.  Christ,  he  will  find  on  inquiry,  delivers  from  the 
punishment  of  sin,  and  saves  from  the  power  of  sin,  all  those  who  put 
their  trust  in  his  name.  Men's  works  are  imperfect  in  every  case,  and 
in  many  instances  positively  sinful ;  and  if  the  Zoroastrian  looks  to  his 
works  for  his  acquittance,  he  will  find  himself  miserably  disappointed. 
The  danger  of  trusting  in  our  self-righteousness  I  have  exposed  at 
length  in  my  lecture.'  The  Zoroastrian  boastingly  said,  '  With  regard 
to  the  conversion  of  a  Parsee  you  cannot  even  dream  of  the  event, 
because  even  a  Parsee  babe,  crying  in  the  cradle,  is  firmly  confident  in 
the  venerable  Zartusht.'  '  The  conversion  of  a  Parsee,'  I  allow,  '  is  a 
work  too  difficult  for  me  to  accomplish.  The  conversion  of  any  man  is 
a  work  too  difficult  for  me  to  accomplish.  It  is  not  too  difficult,  however, 
for  the  Spirit  of  God.  It  is  my  part  to  state  the  truth  of  God ;  and  it 
is  God's  part  to  give  it  his  blessing.' " 

One  of  the  Parsee  apologists  had  appealed  to  the  Zartusht 
Namah,  or  the  History  of  Zoroaster  by  Zartusht  Behram,  as 
an  authority  for  the  alleged  miracle  that  when  the  emperor 
heard  of  Zoroaster's  birth,  and  unsheathed  his  sword  to  behead 
the  child,  his  hand  became  benumbed  and  he  was  seized  with 
convulsions.  As  Zartusht  Behram,  according  to  the  date  given 
by  himself,  wrote  about  the  year  A.D.  1277,  his  testimony  to 
the  reputed  miracle  is  pronounced  "not  worth  a  cowrie." 
Zartusht  Behram,  moreover,  represents  himself  as  "intoxi- 
cated "  on  the  day  between  that  on  which  he  commenced  and 


226  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1840. 

finished  his  history.  The  word  is  mast,  and  the  occasion  is 
given  as  the  feast  of  Aban,  so  that  he  must  have  referred  not 
to  inspiration  but  to  a  real  debauch.  Mr.  E.  B.  Eastwick 
made  the  partly  verse  and  partly  prose  translation,  published 
in  The  Parsi  Religion,  from  Dr.  Wilson's  Persian  copy  of  the 
Zartusht  Namah,  upwards  of  two  centuries  old.  For  some 
five  years  after  these  early  attacks  on  Dr.  Wilson's  Varididad 
Lecture  the  controversy  almost  ceased. 

But  in  1840  a  quarto  of  268  pages  appeared,  bearing  this 
title,  "  Talim-i-Zurtoosht,  or  The  Doctrine  of  Zoroaster,  in  the 
Goojaratee  Language,  for  the  Instruction  of  Parsee  Youths, 
together  with  an  Answer  to  Dr.  Wilson's  Lecture  on  (the) 
Yandidad,  compiled  by  a  Parsee  Priest."  The  avowed  author 
was  Dosabhoy  Sohrabjee,  a  respectable  Moonshee,  well  known 
to  the  native  and  European  communities  of  Bombay.  He 
confessed  himself  the  hireling  of  the  Parsee  sanhedrim.  He 
adopted  the  old  line  of  representing  Ahriman,  the  evil  prin- 
ciple, as  a  mere  personification  of  the  evil  qualities  inherent 
in  man,  and  the  sacred  fire  adored  in  the  Yasna  ritual  as  only 
a  centre  of  worship.  His  advocacy  was  soon  disowned  by 
the  high  priest  of  the  large  Easamee  sect,  Dustoor  Edal 
Daroo.  Agreeably  to  the  "  orders,"  and  at  the  expense  of  Sir 
Jamsetjee  Jeejeebhoy,  he  published  the  Maujazat-i-Zartoshti^ 
or,  The  Undoubted  Miracles  of  Zoroaster,  in  127  quarto  pages. 
The  author,  who  had  lived  for  many  years  in  a  state  of  seclu- 
sion at  the  principal  fire-temple,  expounded  the  Zoroastrian 
faith  to  aid  its  followers  in  their  discussions  with  the  Jud-din 
or  Gentiles.  Dr.  Wilson  describes  him  as  having  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  escaped  the  untoward  march  of  intellect  in 
his  seclusion,  but  as  most  creditably  preserving  his  temper. 

A  third  assailant  of  the  Yandidad  Lecture,  in  the  same 
year,  1840,  was  one  who  signed  himself  Kalam  Kas,  and  pro- 

1  As  Dr.  Wilson  pointed  out  to  the  Dustoors,  the  correct  form  is  either 
Maujazat-i-Zartusht,  or  Maujazat  Zartushti. 


1841.1  "  THE  PARSI  RELIGION."  22*7 

posed  a  series  of  questions  under  the  title  of  Nirang-Jia.  So 
stupid  was  he  that  some  of  the  respectable  Parsees  begged  Dr. 
Wilson  not  to  hold  them  responsible  for  the  writer's  ignorance. 
The  fourth  attack,  in  English  as  well  as  Goojaratee,  was  the 
Hadie-Gum-Rahan,  a  guide  to  those  who  have  lost  their  way, 
written  by  Aspandiarjee  Framjee  in  1841,  at  the  special 
request  of  a  rich  Shet,  Jeejeebhoy  Dadabhoy,  Esq.  Of  this 
last  Dr.  Wilson  remarks — 

"  Its  appeals  to  the  Zand  writings  are  pretty  numerous,  but  the 
translations  and  interpretations  made  of  them  are  much  more  inaccurate 
than  those  of  Anquetil  du  Perron,  on  which,  nine  years  ago,  when  I 
published  the  pamphlet  on  which  its  animadversions  are  made  and 
before  I  devoted  myself  seriously  to  the  study  of  the  Zand,  I  was 
almost  wholly  dependent  for  my  knowledge  of  the  sacred  books  of  the 
Parsees.  The  author,  when  he  finds  my  arguments  insuperable,  gene- 
rally retreats,  like  Dosabhoy,  into  a  parabolical  sanctuary,  which  his 
imagination  has  called  into  being  as  a  dernier  place  of  resort  for 
Zoroaster  and  his  foiled  followers.  In  the  ruins  of  this  sanctuary,  if 
I  mistake  not,  he  has  found  a  place  of  sepulture." 

This  is  a  fair  illustration  at  once  of  the  stage  in  Zand 
scholarship  reached  in  1841  by  Dr.  Wilson,  of  the  keen  yet 
well-tempered  strokes  which  he  dealt  at  error  which  debased 
man  and  sought  to  dishonour  God,  and  of  the  tactics  of  his 
priestly  assailants.  It  was  not  as  a  scholar  however,  but  as  a 
Christian  apostle,  that,  as  we  have  before  seen,  he  rejoiced  to 
raise  and  to  engage  in  the  controversies  which  should  let  in  the 
true  light.  Hence,  believing  it  "  manifestly  desirable  that  the 
Parsee  system  should  be  exhibited  in  the  light  of  Christianity, 
and  "  as  he  modestly  expresses  it,  "  with  a  view  to  aid  in  this 
attempt,"  he  left  as  a  legacy  to  India  when  illness  drove  him 
home  at  the  close  of  1.842,  and  he  presented  to  his  native 
country  and  to  Europe,  his  greatest  work  "THE  PARSI 
EELIGION  :  as  contained  in  the  Zand-avasta,  and  propounded 
and  defended  by  the  Zoroastrians  of  India  and  Persia,  Un- 
folded, Eefuted,  and  Contrasted  with  Christianity."  The 


228  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1839. 

volume,  long  since  out  of  print,  was  published  by  the 
American  Mission  Press  of  Bombay  from  the  first  Zand  and 
Pahlavi  metallic  types  cast  in  the  East.  The  Eev.  Dr.  Allen 
sent  forth  from  the  foundry  of  that  Press  for  Western  India, 
as  Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward  had  produced  at  the  Seram- 
pore  Press  long  before  for  all  India  and  China,  the  first  metal 
types  for  the  regeneration  of  the  East.  But  it  was  in  1778 
that  the  earliest  critical  student  of  Sanscrit,  the  Bengal 
civilian  Charles  Wilkins,  cut  with  his  own  hand  the  types 
from  which  the  elder  Halhed's  Grammar  was  printed,  and 
then  a  set  of  Persian  types.  "  He  gave  to  Asia  typographic 
art,"  may  well  be  written  on  the  tomb  of  Wilkins,  the  friend 
of  Sir  William  Jones. 

The  Parsi  Religion  soon  brought  down  on  its  author,  as 
we  shall  see,  the  highest  honours  of  most  of  the  learned 
societies  of  Europe,  while  the  lofty  honesty,  unalterable  kind- 
liness and  even  warm  affection  of  its  author  for  the  Parsees  as 
individuals,  established  his  position  more  firmly  than  ever  in 
Bombay.  Dr.  Hyde's  Latin  work,  on  the  other  hand,  pub- 
lished more  than  a  century  before,  though  very  much  an 
apology  for  Zoroastrianism,  was  so  ill  received  that  he  is  said  to 
have  boiled  his  tea-kettle  with  nearly  the  whole  impression. 

In  1833  the  "  Zoroastrian "  controversialist  had  taunted 
Dr.  Wilson  that  the  conversion  of  a  Parsee  was  not  to 
be  even  dreamed  of.  In  1835  the  central  college  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  opened  by 
Dr.  Wilson,  then  the  only  Scottish  Missionary  in  Bombay, 
and  in  1839  three  Parsee  students  made  there  spontaneous 
and  very  solemn  statements  previous  to  receiving  Christian 
baptism.  This  was  the  result  of  Dr.  Wilson's  work,  and 
especially  of  the  Vandidad  Lecture ;  and  this  accounts  for  the 
sudden  outburst  of  controversy  against  it. 

Dhunjeebhoy  Nowrojee  was  sixteen  years  and  a  half  old,  or 
six  months  beyond  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  legal  age  of 


1829.]  FIRST  VINDICATION  OF  RIGHTS  OF  NATIVES.  229 

discretion.      His  mother   was  living,  and  his  nearest  male 
relative  was  an  uncle.     Hormasdjee  Pestonjee  and  Framjee 
JBahmanjee  were  above  nineteen  ;  the  former  was  married  and 
the  father  of  one  child.     The  case  occurred  in  the  island  of 
Bombay,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  purely  English  law 
as  administered  by  the  Supreme  Court  and  English  barrister 
judges.     The  most  suspicious  or  hostile  could  allege  no  such 
motives  as  worldly  gain  or  advancement,  for  the  youths  belonged 
to  the  best  families  and  were  the  most  intelligent  in  the  college. 
Altogether,  whether  we  look  at  the  position  of  the  converts, 
at  the  character  of  their  teachers,  or  at  the  conceited  intoler- 
ance  of  the   community   who   believed   that   a    change   of 
religious  belief  from  the  doctrines  of  Zoroaster  was  as  im- 
possible as  it  would  be  impious,  it  was  well  that  the  question 
of  religious  toleration  and  civil  liberty  should  thus  be  tried 
for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  British  India  and  of  Asia. 
Very  slowly  had  the  Court  of  Directors  been  compelled 
by  the  public   voice    of    England    through    Parliament  to 
concede,  first  in  1783,  English  tribunals  with  jurisdiction  over 
all  within  the  Presidency  cities  of  Calcutta,  Madras,  and  Bom- 
bay, and  then  in  1813  completed  by  the  Charter  of  1833,  to 
withdraw  the  restrictions  which  prevented  the  ministers  of  the 
Christian  faith  alone  from  peaceably  preaching  and  teaching. 
Now,  six  years  after  that  charter,  and  four  years  after  Lord 
William    Bentinck   had    taken   the    first    step    to    protect 
Christian  converts  from  the  loss  of  all  their  property  as  well  as 
their  families,  and  the  Court  of  Directors  had  issued  orders 
that  its  Government  should  no  longer  support  Hindoo  temples 
and   Muhammadan  mosques, — which  were  not    obeyed — it 
fell  to  Dr.  Wilson  to  vindicate  the  civil  and  religious  rights 
of  the  natives  of  India  above  sixteen  years  of  age.     The 
similar  cases  that  have  occurred  since,  in  the  Supreme  or  High 
Courts,  as  well  as  in  the  ordinary  territory  subject  to  Indian 
law,  have  raised  issues  of  greater  moment,  and  have  been  on 


230  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1839. 

the  whole  attended  with  less  scandal  than  are  involved  in 
the  occasional  suits  between  Eoman  Catholics  and  Protestants 
in  this  country,  as  to  the  rights  of  conscience  of  minors.  In 
spite  of  urgent  appeals  from  both  Christians  and  non-Chris- 
tians to  the  Government  of  India  for  a  declaratory  law  on  the 
subject,  jurists  like  Sir  Henry  Maine  have  not  found  it 
possible  to  go  beyond  the  English  precedents,  which  leave  it 
to  the  judges  in  each  case,  after  examination  of  the  minor,  to 
decide  what  is  the  age  or  stage  of  discretion  short  of  sixteen. 
Unhappily,  in  states  like  Mysore,  where  English  precedents 
are  not  recognised,  oppression  of  the  most  atrocious  kind  may 
take  place  without  a  remedy,  as  in  the  case  of  the  well 
educated  woman,  Huchi.  And,  even  before  the  Queen's  tri- 
bunals there  may  be  a  failure  of  justice  from  an  ignorance  of 
procedure  in  the  lower  courts,  as  in  a  more  recent  Lucknow 
instance,  that  of  the  widow  Keroda.  But  in  the  Dhunjeebhoy 
trial  the  age  of  sixteen  was  passed,  and  it  only  remained  for 
the  judge  to  satisfy  himself  of  the  fact.  Then  too,  as  in  so 
many  other  instances,  the  defeated  bigots,  for  so  they  must 
be  called  while  all  allowance  is  made  for  parental  caste  and 
superstitious  feeling,  carried  off  and  vilely  treated  Framjee, 
so  as  effectually  to  prevent  his  baptism,  though  not  to  alter 
his  convictions. 

Dhunjeebhoy  was  not  the  first  Parsee  who  had  sought 
baptism.  Like  all  the  Scottish  missionaries  Dr.  Wilson  kept 
inquirers  longer  under  observation  and  instruction  than  those 
of  a  more  ritualistic  custom  think  it  right  to  do,  thus  present- 
ing an  extreme  contrast  to  the  wholesale  baptism  of  crowds 
by  Xavier  as  described  by  himself  in  his  letters.  Dr.  Wilson's 
official  communications  to  Dr.  Brunton  thus  tell  the  story : — 

"BOMBAY,  6th  October  1838. — On  the  9th  of  last  month,  after  I 
had  administered  the  ordinance  of  baptism  to  two  children  of  the  con- 
verts, I  had  the  satisfaction  of  enrolling  in  the  list  of  catechumens  the 
names  of  five  new  candidates  for  admission  into  the  Church — two 


1839.]  FIRST  PARSEE  CATECHUMENS.  231 

Mussulmans,  one  of  whom  is  a  Sayad,  or  reputed  descendant  of 
Muhammad  ;  two  young  Catholic  Armenians,  and  one  young  Hindoo. 
A  Parsee,  the  first  who  has  intimated  his  wish  to  be  baptized  in  Bom- 
bay, appeared  along  with  them,  but  I  declined  to  allow  him  to  come 
forward  at  present  on  account  of  his  very  partial  knowledge  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  my  ignorance  of  his  character.  I  have  been  obliged,  for 
reasons  which  will  immediately  occur  to  you,  to  give  him  shelter  in  my 
own  house ;  but  respecting  his  case  in  a  spiritual  point  of  view,  I  am 
not  yet  able  to  express  a  favourable  opinion.  A  short  time  will  pro- 
bably cast  some  light  on  his  feelings  and  motives.  I  have  reason  to 
believe  that  he  is  a  fair  specimen  of  a  considerable  class,  whose  connec- 
tion for  some  time  past  with  the  Zoroastrians  has  been  maintained 
more  by  the  strength  of  their  social  arrangements  than  by  regard  to 
their  religious  tenets  and  practices." 

"  1st  November  1838. — You  will  be  deeply  interested  to  learn, 
what  I  rejoice  with  trembling  to  state  to  you,  that  there  are  several 
hopeful  symptoms  of  the  true  conversion  to  God  of  one  of  the  most 
advanced  and  promising  Parsee  pupils  of  our  institution.  He  morning 
and  evening  reads  the  Scriptures  and  prays  with  Johannes  Essai,  our 
Armenian  monitor ;  and  he  has  expressed  to  me  his  wish  to  be  baptized. 
He  gives  a  very  simple  and  satisfactory  account  of  the  origin  and  pro- 
gress of  his  impressions  and  convictions.  Were  we  now  to  receive  him 
into  the  Church  he  would  immediately  be  removed  from  our  care  and 
protection.  By  remaining  in  his  present  position  he  is  exposed  to 
many  temptations,  and  he  will  be  in  danger  when  his  views  and 
feelings  become  known  to  his  relatives.  A  gracious  Providence  may 
soon  enable  us  to  come  to  a  decision  respecting  his  case.  When  an 
open  step  is  taken  there  will  be  a  great  commotion  among  the  Zoroas- 
trians, of  whose  pride  and  power  you  can  scarcely  form  an  idea. 
They  are  mightily  incensed  at  present  on  account  of  the  man  whose  case 
I  mentioned  to  you  last  month;  and  they  have,  alas!  succeeded  in 
frightening  him  into  heathen  compliances. 

"  You  will  see,  I  doubt  not,  in  the  English  papers,  the  declaration 
of  war  against  Afghanistan  and  Persia.  It  is  not  my  province  to 
make  on  it  any  comment.  I  only  express  the  hope  that  the  covenant 
of  offence  and  defence  entered  into  with  Runjeet  Singh  will  ere  long 
prove  favourable  to  the  introduction  of  the  Gospel  among  the  inde- 
pendent Sikhs." 

"  7 £/&  May  1839. — Intelligence  of  these  defections  from  the  faith 
of  Zarthust  having  spread  among  the  native  community,  the  clouds 
began  to  gather.  Our  first  concern,  of  course,  was  the  personal  safety 


232  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1839. 

of  our  dear  children  in  the  faith ;  and  we  lifted  up  our  hearts  in  prayer 
that  they  might  be  preserved  from  all  danger.  On  the  evening  of  the 
28th  of  April  they  were  all  with  me  in  the  mission-house,  Ambrolie, 
engaged  in  devotional  exercises;  and  Hormasdjee  and  Framjee  on 
parting  with  me  said  that  they  had  great  apprehensions  as  to  their 
treatment  by  their  connexions.  I  offered  them  an  asylum  should  they 
see  reason  at  any  time  to  place  themselves  under  my  protection. 
Dhunjeebhoy  remained  with  me  to  assist  me  in  examining  some 
Goojaratee  manuscripts,  and  as  it  was  too  late  for  us  when  we  had 
concluded  our  business  to  proceed  to  my  bungalow  on  Malabar  Hill, 
where  we  have  generally  slept  since  the  commencement  of  the  warm 
season,  and  where  Dhunjeebhoy  had  been  staying  for  some  days  with 
the  view  of  assisting  one  of  .our  friends  in  her  studies,  we  mercifully 
resolved  to  rest  in  the  mission-house.  All  was  quiet  during  the  night, 
but  the  morning  showed  too  plainly  that  the  elements  had  been  put  in 
motion  by  the  fears  and  alarms  of  the  families  more  immediately  con- 
nected with  the  youth.  One  messenger  came  after  another  calling  on 
Dhunjeebhoy  to  return  to  his  friends ;  and  one  attempt  after  another 
was  made  to  decoy  him  from  my  roof.  Different  bands  began  to  col- 
lect near  my  premises,  and  different  persons  were  seen  to  be  on  the 
watch.  We  were  informed  that  there  was  great  consternation  among 
the  Parsees  in  the  Fort ;  and  we  had  the  most  serious  apprehensions 
about  Hormasdjee  and  Framjee,  who  lived  in  that  locality.  When  they 
were  at  their  height  the  former  made  his  appearance  with  a  man  car- 
rying his  clothes,  and  declared  that  he  had  heard  that  Framjee  had 
been  put  under  restraint  by  his  friends,  and  that  he  himself  had  made 
a  narrow  escape.  I  had  scarcely  given  him  the  promise  of  protection 
when  two  Parsees  rushed  into  the  room  in  which  he  was  sitting,  laid 
violent  hands  upon  him  and  me,  and  attempted  to  carry  him  off  by 
force.  My  domestics  had  some  difficulty  in  overpowering  them,  but 
we  ultimately  succeeded  in  freeing  my  house  from  their  unlawful 
intrusion. 

"  The  baptism  of  Dhunjeebhoy  took  place  under  the  protection  of 
the  European  and  native  police,1  on  the  evening  of  the  1st  of  May.  .  . 
Hormasdjee  was  baptized  by  me  in  the  mission-house  on  Sabbath 
last.  ...  On  the  preceding  Saturday  I  was  served  with  a  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  with  reference  to  Dhunjeebhoy,  and  a  rule  nisi  with 
reference  to  Hormasdjee.  The  affidavits  which  I  lodged  apparently 

1  Mr.  Forjett,  the  Police  Commissioner,  states  the  circumstances  of  this 
and  subsequent  cases  fairly,  in  his  recent  book,  Our  Real  Danger  in  India. 


1839.]  THE  LEAGUE  AGAINST  CHRISTIANITY.  233 

completely  upset  the  design  of  our  adversaries,  but  as  they  solicited 
time  to  answer  them  my  counsel  consented.  The  case  will  again  be 
heard  in  about  eight  days.  Thousands  of  pounds  have  been  subscribed 
to  distress  us,  and  if  possible  to  destroy  our  glorious  cause ;  but  our 
righteousness  will  speedily  shine  forth  clear  as  the  noon-day. 

"  Of  our  appearance  in  Court,  the  following  is  a  correct  notice  from 
the  Bombay  Times : — '  Since  our  last  the  case  of  the  Parsee  youths  who 
have  abandoned  the  religion  of  Zoroaster  and  embraced  Christianity 
has  continued  to  grow  in  importance  and  serious  interest.  A  second 
youth,  Hormasdjee  Pestonjee,  aged  nineteen,  was  baptized  on  Sunday 
(5th  May)  in  the  Scotch  Mission-house.  There  were  few  Parsees  pre- 
sent ;  but  this  was  not  the  consequence  of  apathy,  for  on  Friday  last  we 
understand  a  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  Punchayat  and  some  of 
the  leaders  of  the  Hindoo  community  was  held  at  the  house  of  Framjee 
Cowasjee  for  the  purpose  of  deliberating  upon  the  extraordinary  crisis 
which  they  consider  as  impending  on  their  respective  creeds,  and  con- 
certing measures  to  avert  it.  We  understand  the  following  to  be  the 
result  of  this  and  previous  meetings.  In  the  first  place,  all  the  Parsee 
boys  have  been  withdrawn  from  the  General  Assembly's  and  all  other 
missionary  schools,  and  a  decree  has  been  passed  by  the  Punchayat 
forbidding  any  parent  or  guardian,  under  pain  of  utter  outlawry  from 
the  Parsee  religion  and  society,  ever  to  send  a  child  to  any  educational 
establishment  with  which  missionaries  are  connected,  or  where  the 
Bible  is  read.  Secondly,  a  fund  is  to  be  raised  to  establish  in  the  Fort 
an  opposition  school,  where  religion  is  to  be  excluded.  Thirdly,  a 
petition  is  in  course  of  preparation  to  the  British  Parliament,  praying 
that  no  more  missionaries  may  be  permitted  to  come  out  to  India,  or, 
if  permitted,  that  they  be  strictly  prohibited  from  any  attempts  at 
proselytism,  and  a  sum  has  been  appropriated  for  the  purpose  of  sending 
one  or  two  European  gentlemen  to  England  to  advocate  this  petition. 
Lastly,  the  leading  Hindoos  of  the  place  have  been  prevailed  on  to 
join  this  league  against  the  missions,  and  negotiations  have  been  opened 
with  the  Muhammadans  for  the  same  purpose.  A  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  issued  last  week  to  Dr.  Wilson  to  produce  the  person  of 
Dhunjeebhoy  Nowrojee,  one  of  the  youths  recently  baptized,  alleged 
to  be  a  minor,  was  returnable  on  Monday  morning  at  eleven  o'clock, 
and  the  court-house  was  crowded  by  Europeans  and  Parsees  to  hear  the 
result.  The  Chief -Justice  sat  in  chambers.  The  Advocate -General 
and  Mr.  Montriou  appeared  on  behalf  of  the  youth's  uncle,  to  claim 
custody  of  his  person,  and  at  their  side  were  arranged  the  members  of 
the  Punchayat,  and  all  the  principal  Parsees  and  Hindoos  of  the  island, 


234  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1839. 

most  anxious  for  the  success  of  his  application.  Mr.  Campbell  appeared 
for  Dr.  Wilson,  who  brought  into  Court  the  two  youths,  Dhunjeebhoy 
Nowrojee  and  Hormasdjee  Pestonjee,  and  stated  in  his  return  to  the 
writ  that  he  exercised  no  restraint  over  them,  but  that  they  of  their 
own  accord  sought  protection  in  his  house,  not  deeming  their  persons 
or  lives  safe  among  their  own  relatives  and  countrymen.  The  Advocate- 
General  requested  time  to  prepare  counter  affidavits  to  disprove  the 
assertions  regarding  the  danger  which  Dhunjeebhoy  would  be  exposed 
to  if  restored  to  his  uncle's  custody,  and  other  matters  contained  in 
those  now  read.  The  Chief-Justice  granted  till  Friday,  or,  in  case  that 
were  not  sufficient,  till  Monday  next  ;  and  ordered  that,  in  the  mean- 
time, Dhunjeebhoy  should  be  at  liberty  to  go  where  he  chose  ;  any 
attempt  to  interfere  with  his  liberty  would  be  punishable,  not  only  by 
the  ordinary  process  before  a  jury,  but,  if  circumstances  render  it 
necessary,  summarily  as  a  contempt  of  Court.  Dhunjeebhoy  on  this 
came  forward,  and,  in  the  face  of  all  that  was  powerful,  wealthy, 
venerable,  or  dangerous  among  his  own  countrymen  arrayed  against 
him ;  the  dignitaries  of  the  Punchayat  expressing  a  calm  condemnation 
of  his  conduct,  and  a  thousand  other  Parsees  betraying  scorn  or  hostility 
in  their  looks,  he  modestly  and  firmly  declared  his  determination  to 
remain  with  Dr.  Wilson.  The  appearance  of  this  youth  is  singularly 
interesting  ;  a  more  ingenuous  or  happy  countenance  we  have  never 
seen  ;  and  while  we  fully  appreciate  and  allow  for  the  natural  feelings 
of  anger  which  his  countrymen  must  feel  at  his  renunciation  of  their 
ancient  faith,  and  the  still  bitterer  regrets  which  his  relations  must 
suffer  from  a  step  which  in  their  view  estranges  for  ever  a  once  beloved 
youth  from  their  society,  we  could  not  behold  his  conduct  in  this  try- 
ing crisis  without  being  strongly  impressed  with  the  moral  elevation 
which  distinguished  his  position.  As  soon  as  the  Court  rose  Dr.  Wilson 
walked  down  with  the  two  Parsee  youths  to  his  carriage.  The  crowd 
made  a  rush  upon  them,  but  as  several  European  gentlemen  were 
present  they  were  allowed  to  enter  the  carriage.  As  soon  as  the  door 
was  closed  a  Parsee  put  his  head  in  and  said,  '  Dhunjeebhoy  !  your 
mother  will  come  and  dash  out  her  brains  at  your  feet,  and  then  you 
and  these  missionaries  will  be  liable  for  her  murder.'  As  soon  as  the 
carriage  attempted  to  drive  off  several  of  the  Parsees  caught  hold  of  the 
wheels  and  endeavoured  to  stop  it ;  on  its  moving  on  the  whole  Parsee 
mob  followed,  shouting  out,  'seize,  kill;'  a  few  called  out  to  the  others 
'  stop,  don't  pursue  the  carriage,  don't  act  fools  ; '  but  many  declared 
loudly  they  would  willingly  sacrifice  their  own  lives  in  order  to  take 
Dhunjeebhoy's.  In  these  violent  proceedings,  however,  none  of  the 


1839.]          DECISION  OF  SUPREME  COURT  IN  HIS  FAVOUR.          235 

respectable  Parsees  joined.  In  noticing  this  fact,  so  creditable  to  these 
latter  gentlemen,  we  take  the  opportunity  to  express  a  hope  that  they 
will  use  their  influence  to  calm  the  excitement  of  their  poorer  country- 
men, and  impress  them  with  the  dangerous  consequence  of  breaking  the 
law  or  attempting  anything  against  the  persons  of  the  converts.  They 
have  a  perfect  right  to  withdraw  their  children  from  the  mission  schools 
— to  establish  other  schools — to  petition  Parliament  if  they  choose. 
These  are  perfectly  legitimate  means,  and,  while  they  confine  themselves 
to  such,  no  one  can  blame  them, — but  any  attempt  at  violence  to  the 
persons  of  the  converts  or  the  missionaries,  without  producing  the 
slightest  good,  will  only  lead  to  a  violation  of  the  law  and  a  collision 
with  the  authorities,  whose  duty  it  is  to  punish  such  violation.  For 
our  own  part  we  would  respectfully  suggest  that  the  wisest  and  best 
plan  in  regard  to  these  youths  is  to  let  them  follow  their  own  wishes, 
and  consider  them  as  no  longer  belonging  to  their  community.  What 
are  three  youths  among  40,000  Zoroastrians,  that  for  their  sake  the 
peace  of  the  whole  should  be  endangered  ?' 

"  The  number  of  our  pupils  on  our  roll  the  day  before  the  disturb- 
ance was  285.  The  attendance  yesterday  was  75.  The  Parsees  with- 
drawn amount  to  104.  Not  one  is  left ;  but  to-day  a  youth  asked 
admission.  A  very  interesting  young  Persian  pupil  from  Shiraz  has 
been  led  to  take  the  decided  step  of  asking  baptism  in  consequence  of 
what  has  occurred.  Two  very  promising  Armenian  youths,  to  whose 
case  I  shall  afterwards  allude,  were  admitted  into  the  church  along 
with  Hormasdjee." 

"20£/t  May  1839. — Notwithstanding  all  the  wrath,  persecution, 
bribery,  and  perjury  practised  by  our  opponents — of  which  the  enclosed 
affidavits  will  give  you  too  sure  evidence — a  decision  has  been  pro- 
nounced in  our  favour  on  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  commanding  me 
to  bring  up  the  body  of  Dhunjeebhoy  Nowrojee  ;  the  rule  nisi,  in 
the  case  of  Hormasdjee  Pestonjee,  has  been  abandoned  by  the  parties 
in  whose  behalf  it  was  granted,  without  a  hearing;  and  both  the 
interesting  converts  are  now  living  under  my  protection,  in  the  undis- 
turbed enjoyment  of  all  the  means  of  grace  which  are  fitted  to 
enlighten,  comfort,  strengthen,  and  purify  their  souls. 

"  The  judgment  of  Sir  John  Awdry,  you  will  perceive,  decidedly 
acquits  me  of  'the  imputation  of  clandestine  proceedings;'  and  less 
than  this  it  could  not  possibly  have  done.  In  common  with  the  whole 
Christian  community  of  Bombay,  you  will  be  grieved  to  observe  that 
in  the  conclusion  of  his  verdict  he  has  expressed  himself  so  indefinitely 
regarding  the  effects  of  intrusting  the  education  of  youth  to  our  charge. 


236  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1839". 

What,  I  doubt  not,  he  intended  as  a  mere  statement  of  his  opinion, 
supposing  himself,  for  the  moment,  to  hold  the  principles  of  a  Parsee, 
has  been  construed  and  held  up  by  many  of  them  as  an  expression  of 
his  own  view  of  the  right  and  wrong  of  the  change  of  religious  prin- 
ciple ;  and  the  most  injurious  effects,  which  I  am  sure  no  man  will 
more  regret  than  Sir  John  himself,  will,  I  fear,  be  the  consequence. 

"  We  now  clearly  understand  that  all  questions  connected  with  the 
personal  liberty  of  the  Parsees  will  be  determined,  within  the  bounds  of 
the  island  of  Bombay,  by  English  law  and  not  by  Hindoo  law  or  their 
own  variable  customs ;  and  we  are  far  from  being  sorry  to  find  that 
this  will  be  the  case.  The  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  as  in  the  prosecution 
now  closed,  will  secure  the  liberty  even  of  minors  when  in  danger ;  the 
only  circumstance  which  would  lead  us  to  interfere  with  the  parental 
control,  is  actually  proved.  Another  form  of  prosecution,  at  the 
instance  of  the  minors  themselves,  will  secure  for  them  the  right  of 
choosing  guardians  after  the  age  of  fourteen  years.  No  very  great 
difficulties  will,  we  trust,  be  experienced  connected  with  other  transac- 
tions in  which  we  may  be  afterwards  engaged.  Our  dispensation  of 
the  ordinance  of  baptism,  in  any  case,  must  of  course  stand  on  moral, 
and  not  on  legal,  grounds,  which  we  see  vary  in  the  case  of  Hindoos, 
Mussulmans,  and  Parsees.  When  we  see  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has  per- 
formed His  work  in  any  soul,  we  must  not  refuse  to  acknowledge  it  by 
declining  to  baptize  in  His  name,  and  that  of  the  Father  and  the  Son. 

"  We  have  had  some  tidings,  on  which  we  think  we  may  depend, 
of  Framjee  Bomanjee,  the  other  dear  convert  whom  the  Parsees 
succeeded  in  apprehending.  On  the  morning  of  the  29th  of  April  he 
was  carried  before  some  of  the  members  of  the  Parsee  Punchayat,  who 
used  all  their  influence  to  induce  him  to  renounce  Christianity.  That 
he  yielded  neither  to  the  threats  nor  promises  which  were  addressed  to 
him,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  when  he  returned  to  his  father's  resi- 
dence all  the  female  members  of  the  household  were  heard  beating 
their  breasts  and  making  lamentations  as  if  he  had  died.  It  is  said 
that  a  few  days  ago  he  was  removed  from  Bombay,  and  sent  under  a 
convoy  along  the  road  to  Nowsaree,  in  the  south  of  Goojarat  ;  and  that 
at  Banganga  he  was  tied  to  a  date  tree  and  cruelly  beaten.  I  am  just 
about  to  dismiss  a  trusty  messenger  in  search  of  him ;  and  it  is  not 
improbable  that,  if  necessary,  I  myself  may  go  in  disguise  to  the  place 
where  he  is  said  to  be.  He  has  completed  his  nineteenth  year,  and 
appeared  to  be  much  under  the  influence  of  divine  truth." 

The  Hon.  Mr.  Farish  was  interim  Governor,  and  because 


1839.]  PARLIAMENT  AND  COURT  OF  DIRECTORS.  237 

of  his  Christian  character  and  work  as  a  private  citizen,  he 
also  became  an  object  of  suspicion  and  attack.  In  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Poynder,  Dr.  Wilson  thus  defended  him  from  mis- 
representation : — "  Although  the  Hon.  Mr.  Farish  would  not 
shrink  from  the  responsibility  of  any  of  his  acts  as  a  private 
Christian,  it  so  happens  that  he  took  no  share  whatever  in 
the  instruction  of  the  Parsee  converts ;  that  his  class  in  the 
Sunday  School,  which  met  in  the  Town  Hall  before  he  was 
Governor,  has  consisted  entirely  of  professing  Christians  ;  and 
that  the  troops  were  called  out  by  the  Government  on  the 
requisition  of  the  superintendent  of  the  police,  who  very 
properly  considered  his  civil  establishment  inadequate  to  the 
preservation  of  the  peace."  Sir  Charles  Forbes  laid  all  the 
papers  in  the  case  before  the  Court  of  Directors,  which  trans- 
mitted them  to  Sir  James  Bivett  Carnac,  the  new  Governor. 
He  was  rash  enough  to  declare,  on  landing  at  Bombay,  that 
he  would  give  neither  official  nor  private  countenance  to 
educational  or  ministerial  labours  calculated  to  interfere  with 
the  native  religions.  Dr.  Wilson  personally  experienced  from 
him,  as  from  all  the  Governors,  "  much  politeness  and  atten- 
tion," and  hoped  that  a  knowledge  of  the  country  and  its 
needs  would  make  him  a  successor  worthy  of  Sir  Bobert 
Grant,  whose  sudden  death  had  added  private  as  well  as 
public  sorrow  to  Dr.  Wilson's  many  cares  in  the  year  1839. 
Anticipating  an  appeal  to  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the 
Privy  Council  against  Sir  John  Awdry's  judgment,  and 
desirous  that  the  question  should  be  debated  on  its  merits  in 
both  Houses  of  Parliament.  Dr.  Wilson  submitted  the  papers 
to  Lord  Glenelg,  the  worthy  son  of  Charles  Grant,  and  Lord 
Bexley,  and  to  Sir  George  Sinclair  and  Mr.  J.  C.  Colquhoun, 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Meanwhile  poor  Framjee, 
after  being  kept  for  weeks  under  restraint  by  the  Mobeds  of 
Nowsaree,  was  allowed  to  return  to  Bombay,  with  the  con- 
fession that  they  could  not  break  his  attachment  to  Chris- 


238 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1839. 


tianity.  There  he  was  strictly  watched,  so  that  he  could  not 
even  write.  At  last,  seven  months  afterwards,  writes  Dr. 
Wilson  to  Dr.  Brunton — 

"  I  had  an  interview  with  Framjee  Bomanjee.  He  had  secreted 
himself  in  a  cellar  below  our  Institution,  and  took  means  to  call  my 
attention  to  him.  Our  conversation  lasted  about  an  hour;  and  I 
received  from  him  a  particular  account  of  all  the  treatment  which  he 
has  received,  and  of  his  present  feelings  and  purposes  connected  with 
Christianity.  His  perils  are  imminent;  but  he  says  that,  through 
God's  grace,  he  will  yet  enter  the  Church.  He  conveyed  to  me  some 
special  warnings,  and  I  fear  that  there  is  too  good  ground  for  them. 
One  of  the  sons-in-law  and  a  nephew  of  Framjee  Cowasjee,  one  of  our 
principal  persecutors,  occasionally  visits  me  as  a  professed  inquirer. 
His  case  I  do  not  yet  understand.  There  are  several  very  influential 
Parsees  here,  in  whose  friendship  I  have  every  confidence ;  and  they 
will  give  our  Institution  their  aid  as  soon  as  they  can  do  so  with  safety." 

The  Parsee  panic  spread  to  Poona,  whither  Dr.  Wilson 
went  for  rest,  and  Mr.  J.  Mitchell's  mission-school  there  was 
also  emptied  for  a  time.  The  course  which  the  Punchayat 
finally  resolved  on  was  the  most  foolish  they  could  have 
selected.  An  appeal  to  the  Privy  Council  would  have  raised 
and  settled  many  still  undecided  questions  of  importance  as 
to  minors,  discretion,  and  the  age  of  majority  under  English 
law  and  for  non-European  British  subjects,  which  must  have 
led  to  wise  legislation,  and  have  prevented  subsequent  and 
still  existing  cases  of  persecution  and  hardship.  But,  as  is 
usual  in  such  cases,  they  sought  and  found  an  English  officer 
to  take  payment  as  their  agent  in  London,  and  they  caused 
to  be  drawn  up  a  document  which  soon  proved  so  notorious 
as  the  Anti-Conversion  Memorial,  that  it  was  scouted  by 
every  newspaper  in  India  save  their  own. 

"BOMBAY,  1th  October  1839. — Before  I  left  Poona  I  received  a 
confidential  letter  from  Bombay,  informing  me  that  some  of  the  Parsees 
were  busily  employed  in  the  preparation  of  a  memorial  addressed  to 
the  authorities  in  India,  praying  them  to  '  take  measures  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  rapid  innovation  of  the  religious  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the 
natives  now  attempted  to  be  made  by  the  missionaries/  and  complain- 


1339.]  THE  HIGHEST  PHILANTHROPY.  239 

ing  in  the  most  unmeasured  language  of  all  gentlemen  in  the  Com- 
pany's service,  who,  either  in  their  public  or  private  capacity,  have 
aided  in  the  conversion  of  the  people.  On  my  return  to  Bombay  I 
have  found  the  intelligence  to  be  correct ;  and  having  observed  various 
illegal  efforts  in  the  course  of  being  made  to  impede  our  operations,  I 
have  remonstrated  against  them  through  some  influential  organs,  in  the 
kindest  and  at  the  same  time  the  firmest  terms  which  I  could  employ. 
Amongst  other  observations  which  I  have  made,  I  have  said  of  the 
persons  to  whom  I  refer,  '  They  ought  to  remember  that  the  right  to 
propagate  religion,  by  doctrine  and  moral  suasion,  is  an  essential  part 
of  religious  liberty,  as  well  as  the  right  to  practise  religion.  They 
ought  to  see  that  it  is  philanthropy  and  not  selfishness,  which  leads 
Christians  to  desire  their  conversion,  and  to  spend  so  much  of  their 
worldly  substance,  and  mental  energy,  and  spiritual  anxiety  for  the 
accomplishment  of  the  object.  While  they  see  no  violence  or  deceit 
resorted  to  to  effect  a  change  of  faith,  they  should  avoid  the  practice, 
or  threat,  or  appearance  of  it,  to  secure  a  maintenance  of  present 
belief.'  My  appeal,  in  the  different  forms  in  which  it  has  appeared, 
will,  I  doubt  not,  accomplish  good.  Other  measures  we  have  been 
required  to  adopt. 

"  The  last  overland  mail  has  brought  most  important  communica- 
tions from  the  Court  of  Directors  on  the  subject  of  the  conversions,  the 
proceedings  in  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  part  taken  by  Mr.  Farish's 
government  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace.  These,  by  a  particular 
favour,  which  of  course  must  not  be  publicly  alluded  to,  I  have  been 
permitted  to  see,  and  I  am  most  happy  to  inform  you  that,  though 
decided  efforts  for  explanation  and  defence  are  incumbent  upon  us,  the 
probable  issue  will  not  be  even  temporarily  hostile  to  our  progress. 
The  foundation  of  the  Despatch  of  the  Court  is  a  letter  from  Sir 
Charles  Forbes  to  the  Chairman,  inclosing  the  disgraceful  and  outra- 
geous representation  which  was  forwarded  to  England  by  the  Parsees. 
The  despatch  approves  of  the  measures  adopted  by  the  Bombay  Govern- 
ment for  the  preservation  of  the  peace ;  expresses  the  confidence  of  the 
Directors  that  Mr.  Farish  did  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  mainten- 
ance of  neutrality  during  the  pending  of  the  trial ;  solicits  an 
explanation  of  the  charges  of  the  Parsees  relative  to  his  alleged  bribing 
and  decoying  of  the  youth ;  and  recommends  the  servants  of  the  Com- 
pany to  be  careful  in  the  use  of  their  legitimate  influence  in  the  con- 
version of  the  natives,  lest  their  efforts  should  be  misrepresented." 

To  the  .Anti-Conversion  Memorial,  after  several  months 
canvassing  and  misrepresentation,  the  Parsee  priests  ob- 


240 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1839. 


tained  the  signatures  of  only  2115  persons,  who  professed  to 
ask  Government  to  prohibit  the  establishment  of  missionary 
schools,  to  fix  the  age  of  discretion  for  all  natives  at  twenty- 
one,  and  to  deny  to  such  natives  above  twenty-one  as  might 
become  Christians,  wife,  children,  and  heritable  property, 
while  fining  them  for  the  support  of  the  families  thus  to  be 
denied  them.  Sir  James  Eivett  Carnac's  Bombay  Govern- 
ment, and  Lord  Auckland's  Government  of  India,  neither 
favourable  to  Christian  missionaries,  fell  back  on  the  position 
of  neutrality,  which  would  have  been  impregnable  if  the 
Bishop  of  London  had  not  in  the  previous  session  of  Parlia- 
ment shown,  amid  the  applause  of  the  Peers,  that  the  East 
India  Company  was  neutral  only  to  Christianity,  while  still 
saluting  idols  and  administering  temple  and  mosque 
revenues.  The  Bombay  Government  pointed  out  the  incon- 
sistency of  the  Parsees'  request  with  their  professed  desire  for 
education.  The  Government  of  India  declined  to  pass  enact- 
ments at  variance  with  Lord  William  Bentinck's  Regulation 
7  of  1832,  with  the  rights  of  civil  and  personal  liberty,  and 
the  principles  of  the  British  Parliament.  Dr.  Wilson's  duty 
was  difficult ;  he  had  to  enlighten  British  opinion,  but  above 
all  to  reason  in  the  spirit  of  the  very  toleration  for  which  he 
pled  with  the  misguided  leaders  of  the  Parsees.  He  did  both 
in  an  able  resume  and  exposition  of  the  principles  and  the 
custom  of  toleration  in  British  India,  which  may  still  be  read 
with  advantage  side  by  side  with  the  noble  state-paper  on 
the  same  subject  which  the  now  venerable  Lord  Lawrence 
wrote  after  the  close  of  the  Mutiny  of  1857,  when  he  was 
Chief  Commissioner  of  the  Punjab. 

In  a  brief  Journal,  kept  for  a  few  weeks  at  the  end  of  this 
conflict,  we  obtain  these  glimpses  into  the  daily  life  of  Dr. 
Wilson,  whose  indomitable  courage  and  vigorous  constitution 
enabled  him  to  pass  through  depression  and  sickness,  still 
abounding  in  the  work  of  his  Master. 


1839.]  FAINT  YET  PURSUING.  241 

"  2d  June  1839. — Considerably  indisposed.  Letter  to  Mr.  Little  on 
the  improvement  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Graham.  Preached  at  the  Poors' 
Asylum.  Examined  the  male  boarders  of  the  mission.  Read  account 
of  the  persecutions  in  Persia,  given  by  Socrates  and  Theodoret,  etc. 
Visited  twice  the  house  of  Bai,  the  convert,  to  administer  medicine  and 
pray.  Confined  a  good  deal  to  my  couch. 

"  4th. — Attended  the  examination  of  the  Byculla  Schools,  where 
Sir  James  Carnac  delivered  his  maiden  speech,  which,  as  far  as  missions 
are  concerned,  was  very  unpromising.  When  I  heard  him  uttering 
great  swelling  words  of  vanity  on  this  subject,  which  he  does  not 
understand,  I  thought  of  Him  who  has  on  his  vesture  and  on  his 
thigh  a  name  written,  "  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,"  and  felt 
that  our  cause  was  safe,  even  though  all  the  powers  and  principalities 
of  earth  and  hell  were  to  combine  against  it.  Attended  the  Institution. 

"  5th. — Attended  the  Institution.  Delivered  an  address  in  Marathee 
to  my  domestics  and  40  girls  of  the  Schools,  in  connection  with  the  death 
of  one  of  the  boarders  of  the  School  for  Poor  and  Destitute  Native 
Girls,  which  took  place  in  the  morning ;  and  delivered  a  lecture  on  the 
Testimony  to  the  Divinity  of  Christ  furnished  by  the  Old  Testament. 
The  girl  was  six  years  old,  and  distinguished  for  her  intelligence. 
When  I  told  her  to  trust  in  and  pray  to  Christ,  she  nodded  assent, 
while  the  little  tears  rolled  down  her  cheeks.  Her  disease  was  cholera. 

"  6th. — Much  distressed  ;  but  obtained  some  relief  after  visiting 
Malabar  Cliff. 

"  8th. — Attended  the  public  levee  of  Sir  James  Carnac,  because  I 
view  it  a  duty  to  render  him  official  respect,  and  because  I  have  no 
wish  to  nurse  his  prejudices  against  missionaries.  Visited  my  sisters 
at  Malabar  Hill,  who  comforted  me  much  in  my  afflictions." 

On  the  23d  March  1840,  Dr.  Wilson  thus  reported  :— 

"  The  offending  parties  have  suffered  so  much  from  the  universal 
rebuke  of  their  European  friends,  and  they  have  been  so.  seriously 
remonstrated  with  by  their  legal  advisers  (especially  by  a  gentleman 
who  lately  arrived  from  England  with  the  view  of  giving  them  any 
assistance  which  their  circumstances  might  justly  claim),  that  they 
are  understood  to  have  resolved  for  the  present  to  resort  to  no  ulterior 
measures  calculated  to  give  us  offence,  or  to  interfere  with  the  observ- 
ance of  the  sacred  principles  of  religious  liberty.  Some  individuals, 
indeed,  have  gone  so  far  as  to  declare  that  they  have  all  along 
dissented  from  the  measures  which  have  been  adopted  to  give  ns 
distress,  and  attached  their  names  to  the  adverse  documents  solely 

R 


242  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1840. 

with  the  view  of  preventing  internal  discord  among  the  heads  of  their 
own  community.  For  their  professions  we  feel  grateful,  but  we  must 
not  permit  them  to  throw  us  off  our  guard.  Their  sincerity  will  soon 
be  brought  to  a  practical  test ;  for  it  is  very  probable  that  shortly 
after  our  return  to  Bombay  the  ordinance  of  baptism  will  be  adminis- 
tered to  a  Parsee  youth,  in  the  progress  of  whose  religious  inquiries,  ex- 
cited principally  by  my  preaching  in  Goojaratee,  and  the  perusal  of  the 
Scriptures  and  tracts,  I  have  for  many  months  taken  a  great  interest." 

The  numbers  in  the  schools  slowly  returned  to  their  former 
level,  and  even  rose  higher,  though  the  Parsees  long  held 
aloof.  While  continuing  his  aggressive  work  with  no  less 
zeal  and  courtesy  than  before,  Dr.  Wilson  soon  proved  that 
lie  had  conquered  the  Parsee  community  not  only  by  the 
weapons  of  discussion  but  by  his  lofty  charity  and  his  un- 
conquerable disinterestedness.  They  trusted  him;  all  of 
them  who  knew  him  loved  him ;  and  their  merchant  leaders, 
and  even  some  of  their  most  sacred  priests,  were  his  warm 
friends  to  the  day  of  his  death.  In  the  field  of  Truth  he 
knew  no  compromise ;  in  the  region  of  a  courteous  charity  he 
was,  like  a  greater,  all  things  to  all  men  that  he  might  win  some. 

The  growth  of  toleration  has  been  so  very  slow  in  Chris- 
tendom that  we  need  not  be  surprised  if  persecution  for  con- 
science sake  died  hard  among  the  Parsees  even  under  English 
law  and  British  rule.  Not  till  1843  did  Hormasdjee  succeed 
in  rescuing  his  wife  and  daughter  from  the  Punchayat.  His 
wife  they  had  married  to  another  man,  although  she  was  be- 
lieved to  be  desirous  to  live  with  her  Christian  husband.  Such 
a  case  is  now  provided  for  by  a  law  which  permits  divorce  only 
after  two  years,  during  which  the  convert  has  failed  to  influence 
his  wife.  As  the  daughter  grew  up  to  girlhood  her  father 
applied  to  the  Supreme  Court,  which  at  once  made  her  over 
to  him.  This  raised  the  ire  of  the  Parsee  leaders  for  the  last 
time.  Mr.  Nesbit  admirably  managed  the  case,  for  Dr.  Wilson 
had  left  Bombay  on  his  first  furlough.  We  must  follow  the 
course  of  his  history  till  his  departure  for  Syria  and  Europe. 


CHAPTEE   VIII. 

1836-1842. 
DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  MISSION. 

Civilians  and  Officers  raise  a  special  Fund  for  the  College — Correspond- 
ence with  Dr.  Marshman  of  Serampore — First  and  Sixth  Public  Examina- 
tion of  the  College— Domestic  Slavery  in  India — Negro  Boys  captured 
from  the  East  African  Slavers — An  Abyssinian  General  and  his  Sons — 
Joseph  "Wolff  again — Dr.  Wilson  on  the  Government  College — Two  Princes 
from  Joanna — What  Converts  should  be  supported  by  the  Mission — 
First  Proposal  of  a  Scottish  Mission  at  Madras — Projected  Missions  to  Runjeet 
Singh  and  Independent  Sikhs — To  Kathiawar  by  Irish  Presbyterian  Church — 
Sir  Robert  Grant's  Death — Dr.  Wilson's  Report  on  his  Educational  System 
for  Lord  Elphinstone  when  Governor  of  Madras,  and  for  Ceylon — Help  to  the 
Gaelic  Schools  in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland — Proposal  to  Dr.  Candlish  to 
send  Missionary  to  the  Jews  of  Arabia  and  India — First  Meeting  with  Mr. 
David  Sassoon — Female  Education  and  the  Misses  Bayne — Major  Jameson 
establishes  the  Ladies'  Association  in  Edinburgh — The  Afghan  Policy  of  the 
Government  of  India — Intercourse  with  the  Heir- Apparent  of  Dost  Muhammad 
Khan — Dr.  Murray  Mitchell  arrives — Dr.  Duffs  Visit — Encouraging  Pastoral 
from  the  General  Assembly — Dr.  Wilson's  Work  as  a  Translator — Dr.  Pfander. 


"  How,  then,  stands  the  case  ?  We  have  to  educate  a  people  who  cannot 
at  present  be  educated  by  means  of  their  mother-tongue.  We  must  teach 
them  some  foreign  language.  The  claims  of  our  own  language  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  recapitulate.  It  stands  pre-eminent  even  among  the  languages  of 
the  West.  It  abounds  with  works  of  imagination  not  inferior  to  the  noblest 
which  Greece  has  bequeathed  to  us  ;  with  models  of  every  species  of  eloquence  ; 
with  historical  compositions  which,  considered  merely  as  narratives,  have 
seldom  been  surpassed,  and  which,  considered  as  vehicles  of  ethical  and 
political  instruction,  have  never  been  equalled  ;  with  just  and  lively  repre- 
sentations of  human  life  and  human  nature  ;  with  the  most  profound  specula- 
tions on  metaphysics,  morals,  government,  jurisprudence,  and  trade  ;  with 
full  and  correct  information  respecting  every  experimental  science  which 
tends  to  preserve  the  health,  to  increase  the  comfort,  or  to  expand  the  intellect 
of  man.  Whoever  knows  that  language  has  ready  access  to  all  the  vast  intel- 
lectual wealth  which  all  the  wisest  nations  of  the  earth  have  created  and 
hoarded  in  the  course  of  ninety  generations.  It  may  safely  be  said  that  the 
literature  now  extant  in  that  language  is  of  far  greater  value  than  all  the 
literature  which  three  hundred  years  ago  was  extant  in  all  the  languages  of 
the  world  together.  Nor  is  this  all.  In  India,  English  is  the  language 
spoken  by  the  ruling  class.  It  is  spoken  by  the  higher  class  of  natives  at  the 
seats  of  Government.  It  is  likely  to  become  the  language  of  commerce 
throughout  the  seas  of  the  East.  It  is  the  language  of  two  great  European 
communities  which  are  rising,  the  one  in  the  south  of  Africa,  the  other  in 
Australasia  ;  communities  which  are  every  year  becoming  more  important, 
and  more  closely  connected  with  our  Indian  Empire.  Whether  we  look  at 
the  intrinsic  value  of  our  literature,  or  at  the  particular  situation  of  this 
country,  we  shall  see  the  strongest  reason  to  think  that,  of  all  foreign  tongues, 
the  English  tongue  is  that  which  would  be  the  most  useful  to  our  native 
subjects." — MACAULAY  :  Calcutta  Minute  of2d  February  1835. 

"  Christ,  Saviour,  by  Thy  coming  bless  this  earth  of  ours  with  love  ; 

The  golden  gates,  so  long  fast  barred,  do  Thou,  0  Heavenly  King, 
Bid  now  unclose,  that  humbly  Thou,  descending  from  above, 
Seek  us  on  earth,  for  we  have  need  of  blessing  Thou  canst  bring. 

With  fangs  of  death  the  accursed  wolf  hath  scattered,  Lord,  the  flock 
That  with  Thy  blood,  in  time  of  old,  0  Master,  Thou  hast  bought ; 

He  has  us  in  fierce  clutch  ;  we  are  his  prey,  his  mock, 

He  scorns  our  soul's  desire  ;  wherefore,  to  Thee  is  all  our  thought. 

Thee,  our  Preserver,  earnestly  we  pray  that  Thou  devise 
For  sad  exiles  a  speedy  help  ;  let  the  dark  spirit  fall 

To  depths  of  hell ;  but  let  Thy  work,  Creator,  let  man  rise 
Justly  to  that  high  realm  whence  the  Accursed  drew  us  all. 

Through  love  of  sin  he  drew  us  that,  bereft  of  heaven's  light, 

We  suffer  endless  miseries,  betrayed  for  evermore, 
Unless  Thou  come  to  save  us  from  the  slayer,  Lord  of  Might ! 

Shelter  of  Man  !  0  Living  God  !  come  soon,  our  need  is  sore." 

CYNEWULF'S  Christ :  Modernised  by  H.  Morley. 


1833.]  EVANGELISATION  THROUGH  EDUCATION.  245 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

IN  Bombay,  as  in  Calcutta,  the  Parsee  conversions  had 
established  the  value  of  an  English  college  as  an  agency  for 
evangelising  the  educated  native  youth  no  less  than  as  a 
means  of  disintegrating  the  old  faiths  of  Persia  and  India. 
The  English  laymen,  chiefly  officials,  who  had  helped  to  set 
up  the  English  school  in  the  Fort  in  1832  under  Dr.  Wilson's 
superintendence,  and  who  gladly  formed  the  corresponding 
committee  of  the  General  Assembly's  Mission  in  1835,  did 
not  fail  to  urge  the  importance  of  English  as  the  medium  of 
teaching  and  preaching  to  this  special  class.  At  the  end  of 
1833  eighteen  of  the  best  men  and  highest  officials  in  Bom- 
bay combined  to  raise  a  fund  for  the  support  of  another 
missionary  who  should  devote  his  whole  attention  to  this 
work ;  and  they  instructed  Mr.  Webb  and  Captain  Candy,  who 
had  gone  to  England,  to  select  a  missionary  of  learning  and 
zeal.  Civilians  like  Messrs.  Farish,  Townsend,  and  Campbell ; 
scholars  like  Captains  Molesworth,  Shortrede,  and  Jacob ;  and 
physicians  like  Drs.  Smyttan  and  Campbell ;  with  not  a  few 
purely  military  officers  who  were  an  honour  to  the  Bombay 
army,  used  this  language :  "  In  gratifying  this  desire  of  the 
natives  to  learn  our  language,  we  would  most  solicitously 
provide  against  the  horrors  of  irreligion  by  communicating 
and  recommending  the  religion  of  God.  We  need,  for  this 
object,  a  man  qualified  for  the  instruction  of  the  natives  in 
the  English  language,  and  for  the  teaching  and  preaching, 
through  this  medium,  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  We  need  a  man 
qualified  to  assist  the  mind  now  emerging ;  to  draw  it  forth 


246  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1834. 

and  lead  and  direct  it ;  to  mould  and  form  and  abidingly  fix 
it.  We  need  a  man  devoted  to  the  Lord ;  a  man  of  talent, 
and  intelligence  and  general  information ;  of  a  vigorous  and 
energetic,  yet  patient  mind ;  of  a  sober  and  sound  judgment, 
of  steady  and  strong  self-denial ;  of  a  prayerful  and  hopeful 
spirit,  and  of  great  and  catholic  love — we  want  a  Missionary. 
Oh!  how  should  we  rejoice  to  behold  such  a  man;  how 
glowingly  should  we  welcome  him ! "  The  transfer  of  the 
Scottish  Mission  to  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  rendered  the 
need  less  urgent ;  and  Dr.  Wilson,  while  fortunately  continuing 
to  hold  unshaken  his  view  of  the  importance  of  using  the 
classical  and  vernacular  languages,  threw  the  whole  weight  of 
his  culture  and  energy  for  a  time  into  the  new  Institution. 
Mr.  ISTesbit's  absence  at  the  Cape  and  Ceylon,  from  ill-health, 
made  the  help  of  a  colleague  more  than  ever  necessary,  and 
for  this  the  special  fund  was  ready.  He  studied  carefully 
the  experiment  of  the  Baptist  missionaries  at  Serampore, 
which  was  of  the  same  oriental  type  as  his  own,  and  he  was 
in  close  correspondence  with  the  Scottish  missionaries  at 
Calcutta.  We  find  Dr.  Marshman,  just  after  Dr.  Carey's 
death,  explaining  the  constitution  of  the  Serampore  College 
according  to  the  prospectus  of  its  establishment  on  24th 
August  1818,  in  a  letter  dated  23d  September  1834,  which 
contains  this  passage  : — 

"  SERAMPORE. — The  assertion  of  the  founders  of  the  College  is  fully 
justified,  that  their  object  in  planning  it  was  '  the  enlightening  of 
India,  and  the  propagation  and  final  establishment  of  the  Gospel 
therein.'  All  the  operations  of  the  College,  from  the  beginning  to 
this  day,  have  been  in  harmony  with  the  original  plan.  Limited  funds 
have  prevented  the  accomplishment  of  some  of  its  minor  parts,  and 
experience  has  led  to  some  modification  of  others.  In  particular,  the 
Sungskritu  has  fallen  back  to  a  mere  secondary  place  ;  and  the  English 
has  been  raised  to  greater  prominence.  But  as  to  the  religious  character 
of  the  Institution,  if  there  be  any  alteration  it  is  that  it  has  become 
every  year  more  decided.  The  Professors  of  the  College,  as  well  as  its 
Directors,  are  Christian  missionaries,  who  hold  that  character  the 


1836.]  DESCRIPTION  OF  SERAMPORE  COLLEGE.  247 

dearest  to  them  of  any  they  can  sustain,  and  who  would  not  consent  to 
sustain  any  other  which  did  not  naturally  coalesce  with  it. 

"  Our  students  are  of  two  classes — Christian  and  Heathen.  The 
former  alone  are  supported  as  well  as  educated  by  the  College.  They 
are  partly  East  Indian,  and  partly  native  in  the  more  ordinary  accepta- 
tion of  the  term.  Some  of  both  are  properly  theological  students, 
preparing  for,  and  already  in  part  engaged  in,  the  Christian  ministry. 
The  others  may  hereafter  be  the  same  ;  but  for  the  present  they  are 
receiving  a  general  education  in  which  religion  takes  a  large  part. 
The  heathen  students  are  all  under  my  own  care  in  the  English 
department,  and  are  classed  with  their  Christian  countrymen  without 
any  distinction  but  what  may  arise  from  their  various  degrees  of  pro- 
ficiency in  all  their  studies  not  purely  theological.  All  of  them  who 
are  sufficiently  advanced  read  and  study  the  Scriptures  two  days  in  the 
week  ;  and  all  their  other  studies,  whether  in  science  or  history,  are 
conducted  after  a  Christian  manner.  At  morning  worship,  indeed,  the 
Christian  students  alone  are  required  to  attend  ;  and  nothing  either  in 
profession  or  practice  is  required  of  any  heathen  which  is  inconsistent 
with  his  own  faith  ;  but  the  whole  controversy  between  Christianity 
and  idolatry,  and  the  whole  contrast  between  religion  and  irreligion, 
are  before  them  continually ;  and  we  leave  the  result  with  God. 
What  more  can  be  necessary  to  make  the  College  a  religious  Institu- 
tion?" 

The  first  examination  of  Dr.  Wilson's  college  has  a  curious 
interest,  as  described  in  the  public  journals  of  1836.  All  the 
dignitaries  of  the  island  were  present,  even  the  leading  priests 
of  the  Parsee,  Hindoo,  and  Muhammadan  communities,  for  the 
conversion  case  had  not  yet  occurred  on  its  public  side.  Dr. 
Wilson  alluded  to  the  difficulties  he  had  only  partially  over- 
come in  securing  qualified  teachers  and  monitors,  and  a 
sufficient  supply  of  unobjectionable  text-books  and  scientific 
apparatus.  He  anticipated  the  time  as  not  far  distant  when 
the  knowledge  thus  communicated  would  bring  many  natives 
with  their  children  "  within  the  pale  of  the  Church."  By  the 
hope  of  this  he  defended  his  connection  with  the  Institution 
as  a  missionary,  and  his  determination  "  to  devote  to  it  a  large 
share  of  my  attention  without  neglecting  other  important 


248  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

duties  which  harmonise  with  its  objects."  From  the  reading 
of  the  Gospel  of  Mark  in  their  native  tongue  by  ten  Marathee 
boys  selected  from  the  primary  schools  to  be  educated  as 
teachers,  to  a  theological  examination  in  the  English  Shastres, 
and  on  natural  history  and  •mineralogy  by  the  highest  class, 
the  work  of  the  college  was  passed  under  review.  The 
same  Goojaratee  papers,  which  a  few  months  later  denounced 
the  college  at  the  bidding  of  the  sanhedrim  because  of  its 
necessary  and  publicly  avowed  results  in  the  baptism  of  its 
students,  were  unqualified  in  their  eulogies.  The  Chdbuk 
or  Whip  declared  that  "  all  were  fully  satisfied  that  no  such 
progress  as  that  made  by  the  boys  of  this  school  within  the 
eleven  months  of  its  existence  has  ever  been  exhibited  in  any 
institution  in  this  place."  A  knowledge  of  the  Christian 
Shastres  was  liberally  put  side  by  side  with  that  of  arithmetic, 
"man,  and  other  objects  of  natural  history."  In  reporting 
the  examination  to  Dr.  Brunton,  Dr.  Wilson  wrote  : — 

"I Oth  November  1836. —  ....  You  will  observe  that  we  secure 
the  religious  instruction  of  all  the  pupils,  even  of  the  boys  who  have 
not  made  so  much  progress  in  English  as  to  use  it  freely  as  the  medium 
of  communication.  It  is  my  intention  not  to  overlook  the  cultivation 
of  the  native  languages,  which  have  hitherto,  to  the  great  prejudice  of 
English  seminaries  in  India,  and  to  the  prevention  of  their  pupils  from 
benefiting  their  countrymen  by  translations,  been  much  neglected. 
The  Brahmans  here  have  the  greatest  contempt  for  some  tolerably  good 
English  scholars,  because  they  speak  their  vernacular  tongues  like  the 
lowest  of  the  low,  and  are  unable  to  compare  together  the  native  and 
European  science  and  literature.1  This,  I  trust,  will  not  be  their  feel- 

1  The  science  of  the  Puranas  is  inconceivably  absurd ;  but  the  science  of 
the  Siddhantas  approximates  to  truth.  "When  the  veil  of  the  former  is  torn 
from  the  Hindoo  mind  it  enwraps  itself  in  the  folds  of  the  latter.  When 
these  are  torn  to  rags  it  says  that  the  object  of  the  Puranas  and  Siddhantas, 
alike  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  is  not  to  teach  what  ought  to  be  believed 
concerning  science  and  philosophy,  but  what  actually  has  been  discovered  con- 
cerning them  at  the  time  of  their  composition  !  This  is  the  position  taken  by 
a  learned  Brahman  in  this  quarter,  who  has  just  published  a  treatise  on  Astro- 
nomy. Let  those  who  think  that  they  can  extirpate  Hindooism  by  mere 


1836.]  FIRST  EFFORTS  AGAINST  SLAVERY.  249 

ing  in  reference  to  our  pupils,  if  you  entertain  the  view  which  I  have 
expressed.  The  natives  have  already  much  confidence  in  our  operations. 
As  all  their  own  learning  flows  through  the  priesthood,  many  of  them 
have  the  idea  that  all  European  learning  must  flow  through  it  also. 
One  of  the  most  influential  of  their  number,  and  of  the  class  represented 
by  party  men  as  hostile  to  missions,  lately  offered  me  a  large  sum  of 
money  if  I  would  give  himself  exclusive  attention  during  a  part  of 
every  day,  which  I  of  course  declined  to  do,  as  it  would  place  me  in  a 
wrong  position  with  regard  to  the  natives  in  general." 

With  this  may  be  contrasted  the  facts  revealed  at  the 
sixth  annual  examination  in  March  1842,  when  1446  youths 
were  under  instruction.  Of  these  568  were  in  the  girls' 
vernacular  schools,  and  723  in  the  boys'  schools.  There  were 
155  in  the  college,  of  whom  78  were  Hindoos,  38  Jews,  6 
Mussulmans,  and  33  Christians  of  the  Romanist,  Armenian, 
and  Abyssinian,  as  well  as  Reformed  Churches.  The  subjects 
and  text-books  were  those  of  the  Scottish  Universities,  not 
excluding  Greek  and  Hebrew.  Prize  essays  were  read  by 
natives  on  domestic  reform  and  the  practice  of  idolatry. 
Geology  was  the  science  studied  that  session.  Dr.  Wilson 
lectured  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity  and  Biblical  Criticism, 
and  used  Hill's  Lectures  as  the  text-book  of  systematic  divinity. 

So  early  as  1833  Dr.  Wilson  directed  his  attention  to  the 
slave  trade  from  East  Africa,  and  to  the  character  of  domestic 
slavery  among  both  Hindoos  and  Muhammadans  in  India.  In 
reply  to  an  appeal  from  T.  H.  Baber,  the  Bombay  Union  of 
Missionaries  invited  the  Moravians  or  United  Brethren  to 
utilise  their  experience  gained  in  the  West  Indies  and  South 
Africa,  and  their  knowledge  of  industrial  occupations,  in  the 
formation  of  a  colony  in  the  Upper  Wynaad  district  of  South 
India,  "to  reclaim  the  slaves  from  their  present  state  of 

science  remember  that  it  has  waved  its  upas  branches,  for  at  least  fifteen 
hundred  years,  in  spite  of  a  tolerably  correct  science,  and  that  even  now  it  has 
begun  proudly  to  encounter  the  full  blast  of  European  philosophy.  That  it 
will  not  suffer  much  from  the  latter  I  do  not  deny.  That  it  would  be  destroyed 
by  it  there  is  no  reason  to  expect. — J.  W. 


250  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

ignorance  and  barbarism."   The  Basel  and  English  missionaries 
have  since  done  much  in  mitigating  the  oppression  of  the 
casteless  races  of  South  India  by  the  native  Governments 
and  Brahminical  communities,  and  that  with  the  aid  of  the 
British  Government,  while  Christianity  has  won  her  greatest 
numerical    triumphs   among  the   simple  peoples   from  the 
Dekhan  to  Cape  Comorin.     But,  till  so  late  a  time  as  1859,  it 
was  the  custom  of  the  civil  courts  in  India,  more  or  less 
ignorantly,  to  register  and  treat  as  legal  documents  contracts 
for  the  service  and  sale  of  slaves,  which  have  been  prohibited 
ever  since.     Whatever  serfdom  or  domestic  slavery  exists  in 
India  is  beyond  the  law,  and  has  ever  since  been  discouraged 
by  the  law,  as  well  as  by  the  special  efforts  of  the  police 
directed  to  the  extirpation  of  kidnapping,  eunuch-making, 
and  other  nameless  horrors  of  the  kind.     After  the  interfer- 
ence of  Parliament  for  the  suppression  of  the  African  slave- 
trade  the  Indian  Navy  played  its  part  with  a  vigour  and  a 
humanity  worthy  of  its  reputation,  which,  till  its  premature 
extinction  followed  by  the  recent  revival  of  a  Marine  Depart- 
ment, had  always  been  great  in  scientific  work  as  well  as  in 
maritime  warfare.     What  was  to  be  done  with  the  captured 
slaves  who  were  restored  to  freedom  in  Bombay,  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Navy  ?     The  Government  at  once  made  over 
those  of  school-going  age  to  Dr.  Wilson,  to  the  number  of 
eight  boys  and  five  girls  at  Bombay,  and  five  boys  at  Poona, 
to  begin  with,  in  1836.      The  problem  is  not  yet  solved  ;  it 
has  assumed  proportions  since  the  Zanzibar  treaty,  secured  by 
Dr.  Kirk  following  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  which  must  issue  in 
Eastern  and  Central  if  not  also  Western  Africa,  following  the 
course  of  the  empire  created  by  the  East  India  Company. 
But  the  germ  of  the  enterprise,  which  blossomed  out  into  the 
expeditions  of  Dr.  Livingstone  attended  by  some   of  those 
very  slave  boys,  is  to  be  found  in  the  eighteen  youths  of 
whom  Dr.  Wilson  wrote  home  at  the  end  of  1836  :   "  There 


1837.]  ETHIOPIA  STRETCHING  OUT  HER  HANDS.  251 

is  reason  to  hope  that  they  may  ultimately  prove  a  blessing 
to  the  Mission,  while  their  capture  will  teach  the  native 
slavers  a  salutary  lesson." 

In  April  1837  we  find,  similarly,  the  germ  of  Lord 
Napier's  success  in  the  Abyssinian  Expedition.  In  the 
course  of  those  almost  chronic  revolutions  from  which 
Abyssinia  has  been  rarely  free,  Michael  Warka,  military 
commander  of  three  towns  in  Habesh,  as  it  is  called,  found 
himself  compelled  to  take  refuge  with  the  British  Consul  at 
Massowah,  along  with  his  two  sons  Gabru  and  Maricha. 
When  in  power  Michael  Warka  had  always  shown  himself 
friendly  to  Mr.  Isenberg,  Joseph  Wolff,  and  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society's  station  at  Adowah.  The  father  and  sons 
went  on  to  Bombay  where  they  became,  of  course,  Dr. 
Wilson's  guests.  The  boys,  then  seventeen  and  twelve  years 
of  age,  read  Amharic  and  its  Tigre*  dialect  with  great  fluency. 
Dr.  Wilson's  polyglott  accomplishments  had  not  up  to  this  time 
extended  to  the  tongue  of  Ethiopia,  but  Joseph  Wolff  accom- 
panied the  Abyssinians  and  left  with  him  an  Amharic  and 
English  vocabulary,  through  which  they  and  their  teacher  at 
first  learned  from  each  other.  "  I  trust  they  are  not  the  only 
Christians  connected  with  the  Eastern  Churches  exterior  to 
India  who  will  be  placed  under  our  care,"  Dr.  Wilson  wrote. 
Wolff  disappeared  more  suo  for  America  in  order  to  enter 
Africa  by  Liberia,  leaving  behind  him  this  characteristic  letter: 

"BOMBAY,  10th  April  1836. — MY  DEAR  WILSON. — Knowing  that 
you  are  a  dear  brother  of  mine  I  take  the  liberty  of  making  the  following 
request  to  you.  I  don't  like  to  trouble  dear  Mr.  Parish  with,  it,  for  lie 
does  a  great  deal  for  me  whilst  I  am  with  him  in  his  house.  My  sick- 
ness and  journey,  and  the  circumstance  of  having  been  robbed  on  my 
return  for  Sanaa,  obliged  me  to  draw  more  on  Sir  Thomas  Baring  than 
I  think  it  to  be  just  to  draw  now.  With  regard  to  my  dear  wife,  I 
gave  my  word  to  her  worldly  brother  never  to  carry  on  my  mission  at 
her  expense.  I  also  don't  know  whether  all  the  money  for  my  book 
has  been  sent  in.  If  you,  therefore,  could  procure  for  my  future  journey 
to  the  Cape  some  assistance  from  Christian  friends  I  should  be  most 


252  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1838. 

obliged  to  you  and  to  the  friends.  I  also  wish  to  consult  with  the 
brethren  here  about  my  future  movements,  whether  I  should  pursue 
my  journey  to  Africa  ma  the  Cape,  or  go  at  once  to  Kokan  and 
Yarkand  via  Kutch,  Kurachee  and  Candahar  ?  I  think  if  I  could  obtain 
1200  rupees  for  either  journies  it  would  be  abundantly  sufficient. — 
Yours  affectionately,  JOSEPH  WOLFF.  " 

In  Dr.  Wilson's  correspondence  we  find  these  traces  of  his 
own  college  work,  and  that  of  the  state  institution,  the 
Elphinstone  College : — 

"  30^  November  1837. — The  Elphinstone  College,  which  is  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  our  school,  and  which  has  most  splendid 
accommodations  and  large  endowment  and  Government  grants,  has 
only  at  present  eight  pupils.  In  order  to  get  the  number  increased  its 
managers  have  resolved  to  found  sixteen  large  scholarships,  and  to 
commence  an  elementary  school.  Did  it  not  by  its  constitution  and 
practice  exclude  Christianity  I  should  wish  it  success.  But  while  it 
interdicts  the  teaching  of  the  words  of  salvation  I  must  invite  the 
youth  of  India  to  repair  to  those  seminaries  of  learning  of  which  the 
motto  is,  '  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  knowledge,'  and 
use  all  lawful  means  to  induce  them  to  place  themselves  under  their 
influence.  Of  the  most  important  of  these  means,  in  connection  with 
ourselves,  is  the  procuring  of  suitable  buildings  for  our  Institution. 

"  2,8th  February  1838. — I  am  happy  to  state  that  the  Abyssinians 
have  conducted  themselves  in  the  most  becoming  manner,  and  that  the 
progress  which  they  have  made  in  their  studies  is  most  gratifying. 
Gabru,  the  elder  boy,  you  would  observe  particularly  noticed  in  the 
account  of  the  examination  of  the  seminary.  He  acquitted  himself 
on  that  occasion  remarkably  well,  considering  the  short  time  that  he 
had  been  studying  English  ;  and  his  subsequent  advancement  has  been 
such  as  to  sustain  the  hopes  which  his  appearance  led  us  to  cherish. 
He  has  superior  talents  and  a  most  commendable  thirst  after  knowledge. 
His  brother,  though  inferior  to  him,  is  also  getting  on  well.  I  am 
quite  hopeful  that  good,  which  may  yet  prove  to  be  saving,  impressions 
have,  been  made  on  both  their  minds.  Their  father  returned  to  his 
native  country  on  a  visit  a  few  days  ago.  Had  he  not  been  satisfied 
with  the  treatment  which  they  are  receiving  in  Bombay  he  would  not 
have  left  them  even  for  a  season.  When  I  expressed  to  him  the' hope 
that  his  sons  might  yet  be  teachers  of  primitive  Christianity  on  the 
mountains  of  Habesh  he  seemed  much  delighted. 


1838.]  THE  TWO  PRINCES  OF  JOANNA.  253 

"  Of  the  Zanzibarian  children  rescued  from  the  Arab  slavers,  there 
are  now  with  me  six  boys  and  six  girls.  Three  boys,  and  these  not 
the  least  promising,  have  been  removed  by  death.  Those  who  remain 
are  learning  English.  The  most  advanced  of  them  is  a  very  promising 
boy.  They  all  wish  to  be  considered  Christians,  though  when  they 
came  to  me  they  were  Mussulmans.  The  five  boys  who  are  with 
Mr.  Mitchell  at  Poona  are  advancing  in  every  respect.  For  each  of  the 
Zanzibarians  we  receive  three  rupees  monthly  from  the  Government, 
but  about  double  that  sum  is  needed.  The  day  may  be  speedily 
approaching  when  the  interesting  objects  of  our  care  and  solicitude 
may  prove  not  only  the  monuments  of  the  divine  mercy  but  the 
instruments  of  the  divine  praise  in  their  native  land,  or  among  thejr 
benighted  countrymen  who  visit  the  shores  of  India. 

"  Two  young  princes,  aged  nineteen  and  twenty  years,  nephews  of 
the  king  of  Hinzuan  or  Joanna,  the  African  island  of  which  an  inte- 
resting description  is  given  by  Sir  William  Jones,  came  in  their  own 
dhow  on  a  visit  to  the  Government  in  the  month  of  October.  They 
were  first  placed  with  the  Kazee  of  Bombay  ;  but  in  their  own  broken 
English  they  said,  '  Tat  won't  do  at  all.  We  come  from  Hinzuan  to 
see  white  man,  and  governor  send  us  to  stay  with  black  man  ;'  and 
leaving  the  Muhammadan  judge  to  his  own  meditations  they  betook 
themselves  to  their  own  vessel  in  the  harbour.  I  was  then  asked  to 
take  charge  of  them,  and  they  became  inmates  in  my  house,  in  which 
they  continued  to  stay  during  the  three  months  of  their  visit.  We 
felt  a  great  interest  in  satisfying  their  curiosity  connected  with  the 
numerous  subjects  of  their  inquiry,  and  particularly  the  principles  of 
Christianity  ;  but  though  they  became  acquainted  with  the  truth  to  a 
considerable  extent,  and  seemed  sometimes  to  feel  the  force  of  the 
arguments  against  the  Koran,  they  appeared  to  the  last  to  cling  to 
their  errors.  What  the  future  effects  of  our  intercourse  may  be  no  one 
can  tell.  They  carried  to  their  homes  the  word  of  God  in  Arabic, 
which  they  understand.  Their  knowledge  of  English,  picked  up 
principally  from  shipwrecked  seamen  and  occasional  visitors,  is  con- 
siderable ;  and  even  their  servants  had  some  acquaintance  with  it. 
From  what  they  stated  it  would  appear  that  it  could  be  propagated 
throughout  their  island  without  much  difficulty.  The  language  most 
prevalent  with  them  is  the  Sowaheli,  which  is  spoken  at  Zanzibar  and 
through  large  districts  on  the  coasts  of  Madima  or  Africa.  Muham- 
madanism  they  represented  as  making  great  progress  in  those  quarters, 
but  principally  through  the  violence  of  the  Arab  colonists,  and  the 
agents  of  the  Imam  of  Muskat.  Their  own  hatred  of  idolatry,  though 


254  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1838. 

they  had  not  a  few  superstitions,  they  made  apparent  on  many  occa- 
sions. One  evening,  after  they  had  accompanied  me  to  some  of  the 
Hindoo  temples,  they  had  a  curious  discussion  with  a  Hindoo  gentle- 
man whom  they  found  in  the  mission-house  on  their  return  :  '  We 
take  walk/  they  said,  <  with  Dr.  Wilson,  but  have  got  great  pain  in  our 
stomachs  (hearts)  because  all  Hindoo  men  are  mad,  and  make  salaam 
to  stone  god.  What  for  got  Governor  ?  Why  not  he  put  you  all  in 
prison  1  You  come  to  Joanna,  then  we  flog  you/  The  Hindoo,  in 
self-defence,  declared  that  he  did  not  worship  idols.  '  Then/  pointing 
to  his  sectarial  mark,  said  his  princely  instructors,  '  you  double-bad  ; 
you  come  into  Englishman's  house  and  say,  I  wise  man,  I  not  worship 
images  ;  then  you  go  to  your  own  house  and  put  on  Hindoo  god's 
mark  just  'bove  your  eyes  there.  You  two-faced  man  ! '  With  these 
interesting  youths  I  expect  to  keep  up  a  correspondence." 

The  growth  of  the  mission  raised  such  questions  as  that 
of  "  alimenting "  or  providing  for  the  temporary  support  of 
young  converts  excluded  from  their  Hindoo  and  Parsee 
homes,  and  fit  to  be  trained  in  the  college  for  missionary  or 
educational  work.  From  the  first  Dr.  Wilson  drew  a  clear 
and  wise  distinction  between  "  promising  and  select  Christian 
youths  while  they  study  English  with  a  view  to  our  subse- 
quent employment  of  them  as  agents,"  and  "  native  Christians 
who  have  nearly  reached  the  meridian  of  life."  Practically, 
he  settled  the  difficulty  in  the  case  of  the  former  by  taking 
them  to  his  own  house  and  table,  even  up  to  the  end  of  his 
life,  judging  carefully  in  every  case,  but  with  a  kindliness 
that  left  him  sorely  out  of  pocket.  The  village  and  barrack 
systems  for  the  occupation  and  training  of  converts,  must  be 
judged  of  according  to  the  class  to  be  trained  and  the  state 
of  native  society  from  which  they  have  come.  In  every  case 
the  very  appearance  of  seeming  to  hold  out  a  bribe  to  con- 
verts has  been  carefully  eschewed  by  the  Scottish  Missions ; 
and  it  is  even  doubtful  if,  in  such  a  state  of  society  as 
Hindooism  still  presents,  the  so-called  barrack  system  was 
not  too  early  abandoned  in  Calcutta  at  least. 

In  1832  Dr.  Wilson  had  urged  the  establishment  of  a 


1839.]  MISSIONS  TO  PUNJAB  AND  KATHIAWAR.  255 

Scottish  Mission  at  Madras;  offering,  on  behalf  of  M.  E. 
Cathcart  of  the  Civil  Service  there,  £150  a-year  for  a  time. 
Not  till  1836  was  the  General  Assembly,  moved  by  Dr. 
Duffs  return,  able  to  appoint  Mr.  Anderson  there,  soon  to  be 
followed  by  Mr.  Johnston  and  Mr.  Braidwood,  the  last 
specially  sent  out  by  the  Edinburgh  Students'  Missionary 
Association  which  Dr.  Wilson  had  established. 

The  Church  of  Scotland,  influenced  by  the  alliance  with 
Runjeet  Singh,  which  preceded  Lord  Auckland's  unfortunate 
Cabul  expedition,  projected  a  mission  to  the  then  independent 
Sikhs,  but  Dr.  Wilson  counselled  a  first  attempt  among  those 
of  the  protected  states  of  our  own  territory,  such  as  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  and  the  American  Presbyterians 
afterwards  undertook.  He  declared  his  willingness  to  make 
a  missionary  survey  of  the  Punjab  up  to  the  Indus  and  its 
tributary  streams,  preaching  in  Hindee  and  Oordoo  or  Hin- 
dostanee  on  the  way.  "  I  could  perhaps  induce  some  influ- 
ential natives  to  betake  themselves  to  Bombay  or  Calcutta 
for  their  education.  I  could  furnish  you  with  such  a  full 
report,  diversified  by  notices  of  the  country,  people,  and 
prevalent  religious  systems,  as  you  could  lay  before  the  public 
for  their  general  information,  and  to  invite  approval  and 
co-operation."  Such  a  survey,  and  the  consequent  action  at 
that  time,  would  have  anticipated  by  twenty  years  the 
Christianising  of  the  land  from  the  deserts  of  Kajpootana 
and  Sindh,  at  which  Dr.  Wilson's  influence  ceased,  to  the 
Sutlej  immediately,  and  ultimately  to  Central  Asia. 

What  it  was  not  expedient  or  possible  for  his  own  church 
to  attempt,  in  the  regions  beyond  the  three  settled  presidencies, 
as  they  then  were,  Dr.  Wilson  induced  other  churches  to 
undertake.  The  missionary  survey  which  he  made  of  Kathi- 
awar  co-operated,  with  the  eloquence  of  Dr.  Duff  in  Ireland,  to 
lead  the  three  hundred  Presbyterian  congregations  of  the 
Synod  of  Ulster,  as  the  Irish  Presbyterian  Church  was  called 


256 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1839. 


in  1839,  to  establish  a  mission  in  India.  The  Eev.  George 
Bellis,  the  secretary,  asked  Dr.  Wilson's  counsel  in  time  to 
report  to  the  Synod  of  1840.  He  submitted,  in  reply,  an  ex- 
haustive report — an  apostolic  epistle — on  the  needs  and  the 
advantages  of  Kathiawar,  which  thus  begins  and  closes  : — 

"BOMBAY,  27tft  November  1839. — About  three  years  ago  I  had 
determined  to  memorialise  the  Synod  of  Ulster  about  the  propriety  of 
its  engaging  in  foreign  missionary  operations  in  its  corporate  capacity, 
and  with  special  reference  to  the  great  and  inviting  and  promising  field 
to  which  I  am  about  to  direct  your  attention,  and  I  was  led  to  delay 
communicating  my  views  to  you  only  by  observing  from  one  of  your 
missionary  reports  that  you  yourselves  had  been  led  to  determine  to 
send  forth  some  of  your  ministers  to  preach  the  glad  tidings  of  salva- 
tion to  the  heathen  world,  and  to  make  some  inquiries — the  result  of 
which  I  thought  it  proper  to  await — at  Dr.  Philip  and  some  other 
individuals,  about  the  particular  scene  of  your  operations.  When,  in 
April  last,  I  learned  that  you  had  turned  your  attention  to  India,  I 
proceeded  to  collect  some  more  particular  information  than  I  possessed 
respecting  the  district  the  claims  of  which  I  had  resolved  to  plead 
before  the  bar  of  your  Christian  compassion  and  enlightened  benevo- 
lence. The  arduous  duties  which  I  have  been  called  to  discharge,  and 
the  great  trials  in  which  our  mission  has  been  involved  since-  that  time, 
have  hitherto  prevented  me  from  accomplishing  my  purpose.  My  pro- 
crastination you  will  easily  understand.  Cum  ad  Makam  defaxeris, 
obliviscere  quce  sunt  domi. 

"  ....  I  say  nothing  about  plans  of  labour,  as  your  dear  brethren 
and  agents  ought  personally  to  inspect  the  field  before  particular 
measures  are  resolved  upon.  It  will  afford  me,  and  the  other  members 
of  our  mission,  unspeakable  pleasure  to  receive  them  in  Bombay,  and 
to  introduce  them  to  the  friends  of  the  Redeemer's  cause  particularly 
connected  with  the  scene  of  their  labours.  We  most  cordially  invite 
them  to  join  our  ranks,  and  with  us  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  Lord 
in  these  high  places  of  the  field.  Let  them  come  to  us  '  full  of  faith 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,'  and  be  prepared  both  to  labour  and  suffer  agreeably 
to  the  Divine  will,  and  the  work  of  the  Lord  will  assuredly  prosper  in 
their  own  souls,  and  those  of  multitudes  of  their  fellow-men.  We  can- 
not say  to  them,  '  the  fields  are  already  white  unto  the  harvest/  where 
the  soil  is  not  even  broken  ;  but  we  can  tell  them  that  the  field  is  both 
large  and  unoccupied,  and  that  when  the  seed  is  sown  it  will  prove 
incorruptible." 


1839.]  HIS  REVIEW  OF  EDUCATION  IN  INDIA.  257 

In  1838  Dr.  Wilson  lost  a  personal  friend  in  the  death  of 
Sir  Eobert  Grant,  the  Governor,  of  whom  one  of  the  native 
newspapers  remarked  that  his  last  act  had  been  to  subscribe 
to  the  General  Assembly's  Institution — "  the  last  expression 
of  his  regard  to  the  hallowed  cause  of  education,  which  ever 
lay  near  his  heart,  which  on  various  occasions  he  advocated 
with  surpassing  eloquence,  and  which  many  of  his  public 
measures  were  calculated  to  advance."  In  a  letter  to  Miss 
Bayne  the  widowed  Lady  Grant  wrote — "  I  have  much  valued 
the  letter  which  Dr.  "Wilson  had  the  kindness  to  send  to  me, 
and  it  has  interested  me  often  when  nothing  else  could.  May 
I  be  enabled  to  profit  by  the  lessons  given  in  it."  Under  the 
new  Charter  Act  Mr.  Farish  became  Acting -Governor,  as 
senior  member  of  Council.  Soon  after  Dr.  Wilson  was 
pleasantly  associated  for  the  first  time  with  a  Governor  to 
whose  administration  he  was  destined  to  render  signal 
services.  The  young  Lord  Elphinstone,  nephew  of  the  Hon. 
Mountstuart  Elphinstone,  had  been  appointed  Governor  of 
Madras.  One  of  his  earliest  acts  was  to  invite  a  statement 
of  the  experience  of  the  principal  educational  institutions  in 
India  before  introducing  reforms  into  his  own  Province. 
Dr.  Wilson,  after  statistics  showing  1887  boys  and  girls  under 
his  instruction  in  1839,  and  detailing  the  school  and  college 
work,  thus  proceeded : — 

"  Candidates  for  entrance  into  the  Institution  are  required  to  be 
able  to  read  their  vernacular  language  with  fluency  before  their  admis- 
sion. It  is  a  great  fault  in  many  of  the  Government  seminaries  in 
India,  that  English  literature  and  science  are  taught  to  one  set  of 
individuals,  and  oriental  literature  and  science  to  another.  There  can 
be  little  intercommunion  between  the  two  classes  of  literati  which  are 
thus  produced.  The  stores  of  European  wisdom  find  no  natural  native 
channel  in  which  to  flow  forth  for  the  improvement  of  the  country  ; 
and  the  stores  of  eastern  lore,  unqualified  and  uncorrected  as  they  are 
by  that  of  the  west,  prove  injurious,  instead  of  beneficial,  to  their 
possessors  and  those  who  are  brought  under  their  influence. 

"  The  pupils,  on  their  admission,  pay  one  rupee  in  our  school,  and 


258  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1839. 

two  rupees  in  our  college  division  for  a  class-ticket,  and  are  required  to 
provide  themselves  with  books  and  stationery.  We  are  most  desirous 
to  lead  the  parents  to  appreciate  the  benefits  of  education  ;  and  the 
small  demand  which  we  make  of  them  has  this  tendency.  It  deters  no 
persons  from  entering  the  seminary  who  have  heart  and  leisure  to  pro- 
secute the  study  of  English,  while  it  forms  a  slight  check  on  the  indis- 
criminate enrolment  of  pupils  who  are  disposed  to  come  from  mere 
idle  speculation. 

"  In  our  seminary  caste  receives,  and  can  receive,  no  indulgence. 
Firmness,  kindness,  and  impartiality  overcome  all  the  difficulties  con- 
nected with  it,  which  were  experienced  during  the  first  year  of  its 
existence.  We  inform  all  our  pupils  and  their  relatives  that  the  lines 
of  our  classes  are  formed  exactly  as  the  ranks  of  the  native  army,  and 
that  we  know  only  those  distinctions  among  individuals  which  arise 
from  talent,  good  moral  behaviour,  attention  to  study,  and  progress  in 
learning.  Nothing  more  can  be  rationally  wished  for  ;  and  every  native 
seen  to  cross  the  door  of  a  European,  an  impure  Mlecch,  ought  to  be 
very  quiet  on  the  subject  of  caste.  With  regard  to  the  native  holidays, 
which  in  general  so  much  interfere  with  the  work  of  tuition  in  India, 
our  rule  is  neither  to  give  permission  to  attend  them  nor  to  inflict 
punishment  because  of  their  observance.  To  quote  the  native  expres- 
sions used,  they  procure  neither  razd  nor  sazd.  The  responsibility  of 
them  is  thus  made  to  rest  where  it  ought  to  rest,  with  the  parents  and 
children  themselves.  They  are  all  satisfied  with  the  regulation  which 
has  been  adopted  ;  and  we  have  often  a  voluntary  attendance  during 
the  holidays,  which  could  have  scarcely  been  expected. 

"  For  the  higher  department  of  our  Institution  we  are  not  entirely 
dependent  on  our  own  school.  We  have  been  able  to  draw  material 
for  it  from  every  similar  seminary  in  this  place,  and  particularly  from 
the  schools  of  the  best  private  teachers.  Some  of  our  pupils  come 
from  a  great  distance,  and  we  are  most  happy  to  receive  them  on 
this  very  account  that  they  will  prove,  when  properly  trained  and 
instructed,  the  most  effective  agents  in  the  illumination  of  their  native 
districts  when  they  return  to  them. 

"The  system  of  instruction  which  we  pursue  is  what  has  been 
called  the  intellectual,  and  which  is  now  so  well  understood  and 
generally  approved  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  make  any  particular  state- 
ment respecting  it.  When  we  deliver  lectures  to  our  pupils  we  do 
not  fail  to  make  them  the  subject  of  particular  examination,  and  to 
encourage  the  writing  of  essays  connected  with  them,  either  in  the 
English  or  Native  languages.  Attendance  at  some  of  these  lectures  is 


1839.]  REVIEW  OF  HIS  OWN  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM.  259 

free  to  the  public.  About  eighty  native  youths  connected  with  all 
the  educational  institutions  in  Bombay  were  present  this  week  when 
I  commenced  a  course  on  the  principal  doctrines  of  divine  revelation. 
The  English  school  at  Poona  is  conducted  exactly  on  the  same  prin- 
ciples as  the  school  division  of  our  Institution  in  Bombay. 

"  The  vernacular  boys'  schools  of  our  Mission  are  in  some  respects 
nurseries  to  our  English  seminaries.  They  are  found  to  be  highly 
beneficial  in  diffusing,  at  a  very  small  expense,  much  useful  and  divine 
knowledge  amongst  the  lower  orders  of  the  people.  The  teachers  are 
paid  according  to  the  number  and  proficiency  of  their  pupils,  and 
generally  earn  from  ten  to  fifteen  rupees  a  month.  They  require  to 
be  invigorated  by  a  constant  European  superintendence. 

"  I  forward,  for  transmission  to  Lord  Elphinstone,  a  copy  of  the 
last  report  of  our  female  schools.  I  would  strongly  recommend  to 
his  Lordship  the  attempt  to  get  similar  establishments  formed  in  con- 
nection with  his  Presidency.  The  honour  of  instituting  the  first 
Government  female  school  in  India  is  still  unappropriated,  and  it  will 
prove  one  of  no  small  magnitude. 

"  The  average  amount  of  annual  subscriptions  in  this  place  for  the 
various  objects  which  we  pursue  is  more  than  double  that  of  the 
Native  Education  Society.  The  reason  .  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the 
fact,  that  there  is  a  growing  conviction  on  the  part  of  the  public  in 
India,  that  it  is  both  proper  and  expedient  more  intimately  to  connect 
human  and  divine  science  in  the  instruction  of  its  youth  than  has 
hitherto  been  the  case  in  Institutions  not  directly  missionary.  Though 
it  might  be  expedient  (I  do  not  say  that  it  is)  for  our  Governments  as 
such  to  avoid  for  the  present  all  hortative  teaching  of  Christianity,  it  is 
in  the  highest  degree  desirable  that  they  should  permit  the  youth  of 
this  country  to  become  fully  acquainted  with  its  historical  relations, 
and  allow  them  free  access  to  the  use  of  its  unerring  standards. 

"  Our  schools  have  as  yet  received  no  donation  to  their  funds  from 
the  Bombay  Government.  Sir  Robert  Grant,  however,  personally 
attended  an  examination  of  some  of  them,  and  afterwards  officially 
presented  a  Khilat,  or  honorary  dress,  to  one  of  our  most  distinguished 
pupils,  the  eldest  son  of  Venkat  Rao  Bahadur,  the  Suddur  Ameen  of 
Dharwar,  and  asked  me  to  submit  to  him  a  plan  according  to  which 
the  Government  countenance  might  in  a  similar  way  be  extended  to 
all  deserving  seminaries  in  the  Presidency." 

Nor  was  it  only  the  Madras  Government  that  consulted 
Dr.  Wilson  as  to  an  educational  policy.  We  find  in  his 


260  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1841. 

papers  this  extract  of  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  Governor 
of  Ceylon,  the  Eight  Honourable  J.  A.  Stewart  Mackenzie, 
dated  28th  April  1841:— 

"  It  will  afford  me  very  great  pleasure  to  write  a  short  epistle  to 
Mr.  Anstruther  on  the  subject  of  vernacular  education,  if  you  will 
kindly  apologise  to  him  for  my  intrusion.  None  of  the  arrangements 
connected  with  the  Indian  Governments  on  the  subject  of  public 
instruction  have  given  me  a  tithe  of  the  gratification  which  yours  in 
Ceylon  have  afforded.  Our  'boards  of  education'  are  by  far  too 
exclusive,  and  they  admit  no  members  of  practical  experience.  They 
despise  and  disparage  religion,  the  only  available  engine  of  moral 
reform ;  and  were  their  endeavours  not  in  some  degree  supplemented 
"by  our  Christian  missions,  I  should  be  disposed  to  question  their 
ultimate  safety.  With  you  all  seems  right,  proper,  and  judicious ;  and 
it  reflects  great  honour  on  Lord  John  Eussell  that  he  has  approved  of 
your  scheme.  There  are  many  eyes  in  India  placed  on  Ceylon  as  a 
model  Government.  In  saying  this,  I  do  not  mean  to  make  any 
insinuation  against  the  civil  officers  of  the  Company,  who  as  a  body 
are  a  most  honourable,  enlightened,  and  faithful  set  of  public  servants. 
It  is  the  simple  fact  of  the  intervention  of  a  Company,  which  some- 
times appears  to  me  to  interpose  between  this  great  country  and  our 
happy  native  land  a  barrier  to  the  full  tide  of  free  and  generous 
British  feeling.  Direct  responsibility  to  a  chartered  corporation — most 
necessary  when  infantile  adventure  required  every  guarantee  against 
destructive  loss — is  a  very  different  thing  from  direct  responsibility  to 
the  Sovereign,  nobles,  and  popular  representatives  of  our  own  realm. 
I  express  this  opinion  merely  as  glancing  at  the  general  interests  of 
philanthropy." 

Nearly  twenty  years  were  to  pass  before,  under  the 
catholic  University  and  Grant-in- Aid  systems,  the  Govern- 
ment of  India  assumed  its  proper  relation  to  all  educational 
enterprise,  independent  as  well  as  under  its  own  depart- 
ments. But  Dr.  Wilson  did  not  confine  his  energies  to  India 
and  Ceylon.  His  sympathies  had  been  also  all  along  with 
the  Gaelic  School  Society,  to  which  he  and  other  Scotsmen 
were  in  the  habit  of  sending  remittances.  And,  in  return, 
he  sought  to  induce  other  committees  of  his  Church  than  that 


1841.]  HIS  WORK  FOR  THE  GAELIC  SCHOOLS.  261 

specially  charged  with  the  care  of  the  India  Mission,  to  evan- 
gelise the  Jews.  These  letters  from  Dr.  Wilkie  on  the 
Highlands,  and  to  one  who  was  already  becoming  famous  in 
his  own  land — Mr.  Candlish — on  the  Jews,  let  in  side-lights 
on  his  work  at  this  time.  In  1841  he  called  a  meeting  of 
the  principal  Arabian  Jews  in  Bombay  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
Sassoon,  whose  son  is  now  Sir  Albert  Sassoon. 

"EDINBURGH,  13th  April  1838. — It  is  a  matter  of  most  sincere 
congratulation  amongst  us  that  the  Lord  should  have  put  it  into  your 
heart,  and  into  the  hearts  of  your  dear  Christian  friends  so  far  removed 
from  their  native  land,  to  feel  for  the  wants  of  their  countrymen  at 
home.  We  have  still  really  much  to  do  at  home  in  all  the  departments 
of  Christian  philanthropy.  But  I  invariably  find  that  those  whose 
charities  are  most  active  at  home  are  just  those  who  are  most  liberal  in 
their  contributions  for  foreign  objects.  Notwithstanding  all  the  assist- 
ance now  promised  by  Government  for  the  support  of  schools  in  the 
parliamentary  parishes,  together  with  the  exertion  of  the  Society  for 
Propagating  Christian  Knowledge,  and  of  the  General  Assembly's  Com- 
mittee for  Schools — and,  indeed,  after  all  that  could  be  reasonably 
expected  from  stationary  schools  in  the  Highlands — there  will  still  be  left 
many  more  localities  than  have  yet  been  occupied,  in  the  plains  and 
islands,  at  great  distances  from  any  schools,  and  which  can  only  be 
properly  or  reasonably  supplied  by  teachers  of  circulating  schools, 
removed  in  two  years  and  returning  again  when  the  wants  of  the  dis- 
trict require  their  aid. 

"  Your  judicious  observations  about  the  native  languages  in  India 
are  all  confirmed  by  the  experience  of  our  teachers  in  the  Highlands 
here.  And  though  in  many  districts,  where  a  few  years  ago  not  a  word  of 
English  was  spoken,  the  people  can  now,  from  having  picked  up  a  very 
few  vocables,  transact  the  common  business  of  life  in  that  language,  yet 
it  will  be  long  indeed  before  they  will  be  able  to  receive  anything  like 
efficient  religious  instruction  except  in  their  native  Gaelic.  Hundreds  of 
Highlanders  in  this  town,  who  have  been  from  twenty  to  thirty  years 
amongst  us,and  who  seldom  speak  one  word  of  Gaelic  throughout  the  week, 
are  still  attending  regularly  the  Gaelic  Church  on  Sabbath,  and  cannot  yet 
relish  instruction  in  any  other  tongue.  You  must  have  had  a  wonder- 
ful facility  at  learning  languages,  that  with  your  multiplicity  of  engage- 
ments you  should  have  already  made  such  attainments  in  that  way. 
I  cannot  help  thinking,  without  entering  upon  the  controversy  about 


262  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1841. 

the  gift  of  tongues,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  has  in  the  distribution  of  his 
gifts,  given  special  and  peculiar  talents  and  abilities  to  some  of  our 
missionaries  in  this  way.  .  .  .  DAVID  WILKIE." 

"  28th  October  1839. — REV.  MR.  CANDLISH,  Edinburgh. — I  sent  you 
by  the  last  steamer  a  number  of  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator,  con- 
taining some  notices  of  the  Jews  of  Cochin.  I  have  now  the  pleasure, 
according  to  my  promise,  of  enclosing  a  correct  translation  of  the  cele- 
brated copperplate  grant,  by  the  late  C.  M.  "White,  Esq.,  a  young 
gentleman  of  extraordinary  capacity  for  acquiring  the  oriental  languages, 
but  who  was  removed  by  divine  providence  at  the  very  commencement 
of  his  able  and  zealous  research.  The  gentleman  whom  I  mentioned 
to  you  as  having  offered  his  services  for  the  purpose  of  exploring 
Arabia  and  the  north  of  Africa,  with  a  view  to  investigating  the  state 
of  the  Jews,  has  conversed  about  his  plans  with  several  influential 
persons  in  this  place  ;  and  it  is  likely  that,  with  a  view  to  securing 
adequate  support  on  the  one  hand  and  accomplishing  the  greatest  amount 
of  good  on  the  other,  he  may  extend  his  views  so  as  to  embrace  the 
general  objects  of  science  and  philanthropy.  He  is  still  desirous  of 
receiving  countenance  from  the  Jews  Committee  of  the  General  Assembly. 
We  are  most  anxious  to  hear  of  the  appointment  of  your  missionary 
to  Aden.  It  would  contribute  to  facilitate  his  operations  had  he 
some  connection  with  Bombay,  the  organ  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment in  its  dealings  with  the  Arabs  ;  and  it  would  rejoice  our  hearts 
to  see  him  include  the  Jews  of  this  place  as  occasional  objects  of  his 
ministry." 

"  IQth  July  1841. — To  ROBERT  WODROW,  Esq.,  Glasgow. — It  is  a 
joint  Mission  to  the  Jews  of  Arabia  and  India,  then,  having  Bombay  as 
its  centre,  which  I  think  in  present  circumstances  most  feasible  and 
promising.  I  will  thank  you  to  direct  the  particular  attention  of  the 
General  Assembly's  Committee  to  the  view  which  I  take  of  the  subject, 
and  also  of  the  friend  who  has  so  generously  promised  to  support  a 
missionary  at  Aden.  I  am  certain  that  his  views  would  be  forwarded, 
and  not  retarded,  by  the  plan  which  I  venture  to  suggest.  I  think 
that  my  friend  Dr.  Smyttan  could  easily  show  the  advantages  of  the 
scheme  which  I  propose.  A  missionary  for  Bombay  would  require  to 
direct  his  particular  attention  to  the  Arabic  as  well  aa  the  Marathee 
language.  I  called  a  meeting  of  the  principal  Arabian  Jews,  which  was 
held  at  the  house  of  David  Sassoon,  the  most  opulent  merchant  of  their 
body.  R.  T.  Webb,  Esq.,  Major  Jervis,  Mr.  Mitchell,  Mr.  Glasgow  and 
Mr.  Kerr  were  present  with  me  during  the  greater  part  of  the  time  that  we 


1841.]    PKOJECTED  MISSIONS  TO  ARABIAN   JEWS  AND  SIKHS.   263 

were  together.  We  were  very  politely  received,  and  obtained  much  of 
the  information  which  we  asked,  as  well  as  the  promise  of  every  assistance 
being  granted  to  a  Jew  whom  I  have  employed  to  commit  to  writing 
whatever  he  can  learn  of  the  circumstances  of  his  brethren  in  Yemen, 
Bussora,  Bombay,  and  other  places.  Towards  the  close  of  our  interview 
we  entered  on  the  infinitely  important  question  of  the  Messiahship  of 
Christ,  and  had  an  opportunity  of  stating  the  usual  arguments  for  its 
establishment.  They  ordered  all  their  children  to  leave  the  room 
when  we  first  mentioned  the  name  of  the  Saviour  ;  and  we  could  not 
help  observing  how  much  more  reserved  they  appeared  in  this  matter 
than  the  Beni-Israel.  They  otherwise  evinced,  however,  no  improper 
feeling  ;  and  they  freely  discussed  with  us  the  different  points  to  which 
we  adverted.  I  told  them  of  the  deputation  to  Palestine,  the  objects 
of  the  General  Assembly's  Committee,  and  its  readiness  to  aid  in  the 
instruction  of  their  countrymen  ;  and  they  seemed  pleased  with  the 
interest  which  our  Church  takes  in  their  welfare.  More  noble  looking 
men  than  they  are  not  to  be  seen  on  the  streets  of  Bombay,  where  so 
many  tribes  of  the  world  have  their  representatives." 

Such  was  the  first  love  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  the 
infancy  of  its  missions  abroad  and  its  evangelical  revival  at 
home,  that  it  planned  enterprises  in  Arabia,  in  Persia,  and  on 
the  upper  Indus,1  while  it  stimulated  other  churches  to  take 
up  provinces  which  its  agents  had,  as  pioneers,  surveyed. 
But  in  Bombay  itself  the  death  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Wilson  had 
left  the  many  female  schools  without  a  head,  although,  a  lady 
teacher  had  been  speedily  sent  out  to  conduct  them ;  and  the 
development  of  the  College  made  it  imperative  that  the  long 
sought  for  colleague,  whom  the  Christian  officials  desired  to 
help  Dr.  Wilson,  should  be  at  once  found,  the  more  that  Mr. 
Nesbit  had  been  absent  from  India  for  a  time  seeking  health. 
Accordingly,  Dr.  Wilson,  early  in  1836,  had  summoned  to  his 
side  the  Misses  Anna  and  Hay  Bayne,  on  whom  lie  pressed  the 

i  Dr.  Bi^^n  had  written  thus  to  Dr.  Wilson  : — "EDINBURGH  COLLEGE, 
2d  Janua/^^mSS. — Allow  me  to  remind  you  of  your  promise  to  send  us  in- 
formation about  the  feasibility  of  a  Mission  in  the  Sikh  country.  The  munifi- 
cent patroness  of  the  undertaking  is  now  a  widow,  and  waning  fast  into  the 
vale  of  years.  She  is  the  more  earnest  to  learn  '  the  truth,  the  whole  truth, 
and  nothing  but  the  truth. '  " 


264  LIFE  OF  JOHN. WILSON.  [1841. 

claims  of  their  sister's  work  as  an  inheritance  of  which  they 
were  bound  to  take  possession.  These  ladies  were  to  be  his 
own  guests,  brought  out  at  his  own  cost,  while  retaining  their 
independence  in  all  things.  "  The  Assembly's  Committee,  I 
doubt  not,  would  give  you  any  encouragement  you  might 
desire,"  he  wrote  in  September  1836.  But,  "I  have  been 
forming  a  private  fund  for  female  education  from  the  profits 
of  our  publications,  which  are  of  course  my  own;  from  the 
proceeds  of  some  jewels  presented  by  a  lady  in  aid  of  it,  and 
to  be  employed  by  me,  without  any  notice  being  taken  of  the 
matter,  for  procuring  me  personal  aid  in  the  schools ;  and  from 
sums  given  me  for  my  unquestioned  disposal  either  private  or 
public.  I  shall,  I  doubt  not,  have  two  hundred  guineas  to 
pay  your  passage  to  India."  Towards  the  end  of  1837  the 
sisters  arrived  in  Bombay,  and  at  their  own  charges.  Very 
tender  and  beautiful  was  the  family  life  in  the  Ambrolie 
mission  home,  and  occasionally  in  the  country  house  on 
Malabar  Hill  and  in  that  at  Mahableshwar,  as  revealed 
by  the  now  faded  correspondence,  till  Hay  was  married  to 
Mr.  Nesbit  only  to  carry  on  her  missionary  work  till  her 
premature  death  in  1848,  and  Anna  was  laid  beside 
her  sister  Margaret  in  the  Scottish  cemetery,  her  works 
following  her.  Once  more  did  the  fast  increasing  class  of 
educated  Natives  of  all  sects  in  Bombay,  as  well  as  the  native 
Christian  community,  see  the  purity,  the  grace,  and  the  in- 
tellectual attraction  which  cultured  women  lent  to  the 
missionary's  home,  making  it  every  year  more  and  more  the 
centre,  and  largely  the  source,  of  all  that  was  elevating  in 
Bombay  society. 

Impressed  by  the  importance  of  the  work,  a  retired 
Bombay  officer  who  had  taken  part  in  it,  Major  St.  Clair 
Jameson,  brother  of  Sheriff  Jameson,  had  in  1837  issued  an 
appeal  to  the  ladies  of  Scotland,  which  resulted  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Ladies'  Society  for  Female  Education  in  India. 


1841.]  FEMALE  EDUCATION.       THE  AFGHAN  WAR.  265 

That  Association,  united  in  1865  with  a  similar  agency  for 
Africa,  has  ever  since  worked  side  by  side  with  the  Foreign 
Mission  Committee  of  the  Free  Church,  and  with  remarkable 
success.  At  Poona,  as  well  as  Bombay,  this  indispensable 
side  of  a  vigorous  mission  was  extended.  In  a  letter  to  the 
Eev.  G.  White,  chaplain  of  distant  Cawnpore,  who  was  suc- 
cessfully conducting  a  Female  Orphan  Asylum  there,  Dr. 
Wilson  wrote  in  1835,  "I  am  more  and  more  convinced  that, 
in  seeking  for  the  moral  renovation  of  India,  we  must  make 
greater  efforts  than  we  have  yet  done  to  operate  upon  the 
female  mind.  In  Christian  countries  it  is,  generally  speak- 
ing, more  on  the  side  of  religion  than  the  male  mind.  In 
India  it  is  the  stronghold  of  superstition.  Its  enlighten- 
ment ought  to  be  an  object  of  first  concern  with  us.  You 
will  be  happy  to  hear  that  the  prejudices  against  its  instruc- 
tion in  Bombay  are  fast  diminishing  among  the  natives."  In 
a  letter  to  his  Edinburgh  agent  Dr.  Wilson  records  the  pro- 
gress of  his  sisters-in-law,  and  gives  us  a  contemporary  view 
of  the  then  gathering  Afghan  expedition.  He  shows  himself 
wise,  as  always,  in  political  questions,  while,  writing  to  a  con- 
fidential agent,  he  expresses  his  opinion  with  a  frankness 
rare  in  his  more  public  communications.  For  while  he  was 
the  citizen  and  the  statesman,  the  scholar  and  the  philan- 
thropist, he  was  above  all  things  the  Christian  missionary : — 

"  3d  October  1838.  —  Anna  and  Hay  are  making  rapid  pro- 
gress with  the  Marathee.  Our  friend  Dr.  Smyttan  is  to  leave  us  in 
January.  You  will  find  him  a  great  acquisition  in  Edinburgh ;  but. 
his  loss  to  us  will  be  great  indeed.  I  am  wearying  greatly  for  Mr. 
Mitchell's  arrival.  I  got  his  letter  via  the  Cape  only  the  other  day. 
I  liked  the  spirit  of  it  very  much,  and  anticipate  great  results  from 
his  labours. 

"  I  am  not  by  any  means  satisfied  of  the  justice  of  our  invasion  of 
Afghanistan.  Shah  Shujah  (that  old  cruel  monster)  has  got  from  our 
army  6000  volunteers,  officered  by  the  Company,  to  endeavour  to 
reseat  him  on  the  throne  of  Cabul.  Our  main  army,  1 3,000  strong,  is 
now  assembling  on  the  banks  of  the  Sutlej,  and  it  is  to  move  to  the 


266  LIFE  OF.  JOHN  WILSON.  [1841. 

northward  under  the  command  of  Sir  Henry  Fane.  It  is  entirely 
composed  of  Bengal  troops.  Our  army  of  reserve,  5000  strong,  com- 
posed of  Bombay  troops,  is  now  mustering  in  Kutch.  Four  of  the 
Bombay  stations,  Sholapore,  Kaludgee,  Belgaum,  and  Dharwar,  are  in  a 
few  days  to  be  occupied  by  Madras  troops.  The  large  station  of  Mhow 
is  to  have  Bombay  instead  of  Bengal  troops.  That  we  should  send  an 
army  to  watch  the  movements  of  Russia,  Persia,  etc.,  I  fully  admit. 
That  we  should  dethrone  Dost  Muhammad  Khan  I  stoutly  deny,  on 
the  ground  of  my  present  information," 

When,  three  years  later,  the  Afghan  iniquity  was  becom- 
ing a  tragedy  of  a  very  doleful  kind  to  our  arms,  our  honour, 
and  our  prestige  in  Asia,  and  when  Dost  Muhammad  was 
a  state  prisoner  on  parole  in  Calcutta,  where  he  might  be 
observed  at  his  devotions  on  the  Course  as  the  gay  world 
rolled  past,  his  heir-apparent,  Haider  Khan,  was  a  frequent 
visitor  at  Ambrolie.  On  the  1st  March  1841  Dr.  Wilson 
thus  gossips  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Smyttan  : — 

"  We  have  lately  had  presented  to  us  a  hydro-oxygenic 
microscope,  which  cost  Es.  600.  It  has  been  several  times 
exhibited  at  my  house,  and  has  made  a  great  impression  on 
the  natives.  Prince  Haider  Khan,  the  son  of  Dost  Muham- 
mad, is  coming  to  see  it  in  a  day  or  two.  He  and  I  are 
great  friends.  Should  his  family  ever  again  be  restored  to 
sovereign  power,  it  will,  I  think,  be  favourable  to  missionary 
operations.  He  sat  two  hours  with  Anna  and  me  the  other 
day.  He  talks  nothing  but  Persian  and  Pushtoo.  I  get  on 
pretty  well  with  him;  and  the  Moonshee  Abdool  Eahman 
Khan,  whom  you  will  perhaps  remember  as  a  companion  of 
Dadoba  Pandurang,  makes  all  clear  when  I  break  down. 
This  young  man,  by  the  bye,  comes  to  us  every  morning  to 
read  the  Scriptures.  He  will,  we  hope,  declare  for  Christ. 
What  an  accession  he  would  be  to  our  strength !  "  So  grateful 
was  Dost  Muhammad  to  Dr.  Wilson  for  his  kindness  to  his 
son  when  in  captivity,  that  he  declared  he  would  keep  the 
passes  open  for  a  visit  from  the  Padre  Saheb,  however 


1841.]  DOST  MUHAMMAD'S  GRATITUDE  TO  HIM.  267 

disturbed  the  frontier  might  be.  But  Haider  Khan  never 
became  more  than  a  sensual  Afghan,  as  described  in  Colonel 
Lumsden's  confidential  report  on  the  "  Mission  to  Kandahar  " 
in  1856,  although  he  was  always  well  inclined  to  the  British 
Government  because  of  "  the  manner  in  which  he  was 
treated  while  a  prisoner  in  Hindostan."  When  in  Bombay 
he  had  an  opportunity  of  visiting  England,  of  which 
he  afterwards  regretted  that  he  did  not  avail  himself.  The 
present  Ameer,  Sher  Ali,  is  his  full  brother. 

The  Mr.  Mitchell  for  whom  Dr.  Wilson  wearied,  was  the 
Eev.  J.  Murray  Mitchell,  of  the  University  of  Aberdeen, 
which  now  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  Universities  of  Edin- 
burgh and  St.  Andrews,  and,  besides  him,  gave  to  India  from 
the  same  year's  classes  the  Eev.  John  Hay,  still  the  able 
Teloogoo  scholar  of  the  London  Missionary  Society  at  Yizaga- 
patam,  and  the  Eev.  Dr.  Ogilvie,  the  first  missionary  of  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland  at  Calcutta.  Dr.  Murray 
Mitchell,  as  in  due  time  he  became,  took  with  him  the 
Classical  and  Hebrew  scholarship  with  which  Aberdeen  and 
Melvin  were  associated,  while  his  wife  subsequently  became 
a  missionary  to  the  women  of  Bombay  and  Calcutta,  worthy 
of  her  cousins  the  Baynes.  The  arrival  of  his  new  colleague 
towards  the  end  of  1838,  gave  Dr.  Wilson  another  proof  of  the 
confidence  and  affection  of  the  Christian  officials,  who  had 
raised  a  special  fund  of  £1800  for  this  extension  of  the  college 
operations. 

DR.   DUFF  TO   DR.  WILSON. 

"  MY  DEAR  WILSON — I  know  not  why  our  correspondence  should 
not  be  more  frequent.  It  is  my  own  heart's  desire  to  be  linked  closer 
and  closer  with  all  my  fellow-labourers  in  the  East.  Ere  long  I  trust, 
in  the  good  providence  of  God,  to  rejoin  the  field  from  which  I  have 
been  so  long  severed.  To  Bombay  I  have  looked,  in  common  with 
others,  with  no  ordinary  interest.  And  I  have  blessed  God  for  all  that 
he  hath  accomplished  by  you  and  for  you.  Long  may  he  spare  you  to 
prosecute  your  multifarious  labours.  In  Mr.  Mitchell  you  will  find  a 


268  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1841. 

hearty   coadjutor,  a    man  of  faith  and  prayer   and    scholarship — all 
beauteously  and  harmoniously  united  and  blended. 

"  In  case  I  should  still  be  detained  here  for  some  time,  I  am  anxious 
to  be  put  in  possession  of  all  the  existing  facts  and  documents  that  are 
accessible  on  the  subject  of  the  connection  of  Government  with 
idolatry.  If  spared,  I  should  like  to  make  an  efficient  appeal  on  the 
subject,  in  the  event  of  the  despatches  from  the  Home  Office  not  proving 
satisfactory.  I  was  doing  this  sooner,  and  was  prevented  for  some 
time  for  want  of  the  necessary  documents,  and  latterly  from  severe  and 
protracted  ill-health. — Yours  affectionately,  ALEXANDER  DUFF." 

Having  roused  the  whole  of  Scotland,  the  north  of 
Ireland,  and  many  parts  of  England  by  his  fiery  zeal,  Dr. 
Duff  returned  to  Calcutta  early  in  the  year  1840,  by  way  of 
Bombay.  It  was  necessary  for  the  good  of  the  Mission  in 
all  three  cities  and  for  the  success  of  the  projected  Irish 
Mission,  that  the  two  distinguished  men,  still  young,  should 
consult  together — Dr.  Wilson,  now  almost  worn  out  by  eleven 
years  of  incessant  and  varied  work  for  his  Master ;  Dr.  Duff 
fresh  from  home,  but  also  from  labours  no  less  abundant.  If, 
in  the  course  of  the  many  splendid  orations  which  Dr.  Duff 
had  spoken  and  published  in  the  previous  five  years,  he  had 
been  led  by  his  Calcutta  experience  occasionally  to  seem  to 
Dr.  Wilson  to  underestimate  the  need  for  female  education 
and  instruction  in  the  vernacular  languages  which  Western 
India  at  least  had  demanded,  all  was  forgotten  or  discussed 
after  a  most  brotherly  fashion  when  the  two  held  long  con- 
verse at  Ambrolie.  Dr.  Duff  has  left  a  record  of  his  visit  in  a 
popular  report  to  the  committee,  published  at  the  time. 

The  General  Assembly  of  the  subsequent  May  addressed 
an  encouraging  pastoral  letter  to  its  missionaries,  ministers, 
and  elders  in  India,  signed  by  the  moderator,  Dr.  Makellar, 
and  the  learned  Principal  Lee,  the  clerk.  Their  generous  ac- 
knowledgments of  the  arduous  labours  of  the  missionaries,  and 
co-operation  of  the  chaplains  and  elders,  and  the  wise  counsels 
of  the  document,  had  so  good  an  effect  that  a  similar  com- 


1841.]  HIS  WORK  FOR  THE  PRESS.  269 

munication  might  be  more  frequently  sent  with  the  best 
results  both  at  home  and  abroad.  After  the  last  Assembly 
before  the  Disruption  of  1843,  Dr.  Welsh,  second  only  to  Dr. 
Chalmers  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  at  that  time,  addressed 
Dr.  Wilson  at  the  request  of  the  Colonial  Committee,  on  the 
subject  of  the  scattered  settlers  in  India,  for  whom  no  spiritual 
provision  was  made  till  the  establishment  of  the  Anglo-Indian 
Christian  Union  in  1864. 

It  is  difficult  to  see  how,  in  the  midst  of  all  his  other 
engagements,  Dr.  Wilson  found  time  for  that  translation  and 
publication  of  books,  which  formed  in  his  eyes  as  important 
a  department  as  the  schools  and  even  the  preaching,  because 
the  press  fed  both.1  So  early  as  1833  he  had  thus  justified 
his  expenditure  to  the  directors  of  the  Scottish  Missionary 
Society,  when  they  were  insisting  on  restricting  operations  in 

1  "  OPERATIONS  OF  THE  PRESS  IN  1839. — I  published  a  new  edition  of  my 
Idiomatical  Exercises,  in  English  and  Marathee,  which  are  pretty  generally 
used  as  a  school-book  in  this  part  of  India.  A  Goojaratee  tract,  addressed  by 
me  to  the  Jaina  priests  of  Palitana,  and  an  English  sermon  addressed  to  the 
Parsees,  have  been  new  publications.  I  have  spent  a  considerable  time  in 
connection  with  the  Translation  Committee  of  the  Bible  Society,  of  which  I 
am  the  secretary;  and  Mr.  Nesbit  has  similarly  occupied  a  part  of  his  leisure. 
The  following  is  the  work  done  at  the  lithographic  press  : — 
Account  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians  ....  Pages  80  Copies  1500 
Letter  to  the  Jaina  Priests  of  Palitana  .  .  .  18  1500 

The  Nature  of  God  and  Character  of  True  Worshippers  25  2000 

Account  of  Missionaries 53  2000 

The  True  Atonement 29  2000 

On  Repentance 28  2000 

Marks  of  the  True  Religion 28  2000 

In  Whom  shall  we  Trust? 26  2000 

Relief  to  the  Sin-Burdened 19  2000 

On  the  Holiness  and  Justice  of  God  .         ...  22  2000 

The  Ayah  and  Lady 78  2000 

On  Knowing  God 8  •  2000 

The  Worship  of  the  Elements 38  2000 

Gospel  Catechism 36  2000 

"  The  total  number  of  tracts  printed  is  27,000,  and  of  separate  pages 
957,000.  Most  of  the  tracts  belong  to  the  Bombay  Tract  and  Book  Society. 
The  two  first  were  printed  at  my  own  expense,  but  the  subsequent  sale  of 
them  has  almost  reimbursed  me  for  the  outlay. — J.  W." 


270  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1841. 

Bombay,  where  the  press  cost  £128  a  year ;  the  Goojaratee 
pundit  £20 ;  the  Hindostanee,  £36 ;  and  the  Sanscrit  and 
Marathee,  £36  :— 

"  The  Pundits  whom  I  have  retained  for  some  time  have  been 
required  by  me  not  so  much  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  me  in  my 
studies — though  they  are  of  course  highly  useful  in  this  respect — but 
of  aiding  me  in  fulfilling  my  engagements  with  the  press.  During  the 
past  year  I  have  composed  and  principally  written  out  with  my  own 
hand,  in  the  first  instance,  upwards  of  2000  8vo  pages  in  different 
languages ;  and  it  will  he  perceived,  when  the  general  inefficiency  of 
native  assistants  is  considered,  that  the  help  which  I  have  enjoyed  has 
been  required  for  almost  merely  mechanical  purposes.  At  present 
the  editing,  and  in  a  great  degree  the  translating,  of  the  Marathee 
Scriptures,  and  the  editing  of  the  tracts  of  the  Bombay  Tract  and  Book 
Society,  and  the  preparation  of  some  pamphlets,  have  devolved  on  me. 
I  have  all  along  paid  a  considerable  part  of  my  Pundit's  wages  inde- 
pendently of  the  Society." 

Nor  was  it  in  Bombay  alone  or  in  its  languages  that  Dr. 
Wilson  was  active.  Dr.  Pfander,  the  Arabic  scholar  and 
controversialist,  had  arrived  in  Calcutta  in  1838,  and  sought 
his  aid  in  printing  the  three  Persian  treatises  before  referred 
to.  In  the  work  of  translating  the  Scriptures  into  the  vari- 
ous vernaculars  all  the  competent  Protestant  missionaries 
in  the  Province,  and  scholars  like  Captains  Molesworth  and 
Candy,  gladly  gave  help.  Until  there  are  native  scholars, 
masters  of  Greek  and  Hebrew  as  well  as  of  their  own  classi- 
cal and  vernacular  languages,  to  become  to  the  races  of  India 
what  Luther  was  to  Germany,  the  translations  of  the  Scrip- 
tures by  foreigners,  however  learned  and  experienced,  will 
require  revision  every  generation.  This  has  been  the  case 
in  the  century  since  Dr.  Carey  began  his  attempts  in 
northern,  and  the  Lutherans  in  southern  India.  The  diffi- 
culties caused  by  such  revisions,  required  even  in  the  English 
Bible,  are  inevitable,  until  the  Church  of  India  develops  its 
own  organisation  and  life. 


CHAPTEE   IX. 

1836-1842. 

TOUBS— GAIKSOPPA  FALLS— RAJPOOTANA— KATHIAWAR— THE 
SOMNATH  GATES. 

Sun-Worship  Tested  by  Arithmetic — Changes  in  Goa — The  Portuguese 
Priests  and  the  Bible — Gairsoppa  and  its  Falls — Ajuntaand  the  "  Possessed" 
Bangle-Seller — Cursetjee  J.  Jeejeebhoy,  Esq. — A  Pilgrimage  to  Parbuttee, 
the  Government  Idol— First  Tour  to  Raj  pootana— Farewell  to  Dr.  Duff- 
Civilisation  of  Baroda — Dr.  "Wilson  and  his  Cashmere  Shawls — Breakfast 
with  a  Nawab — Correcting  Bishop  Heber — Antiquities  of  Puttun — Native 
Christians  without  a  Missionary  Teacher — The  Great  Goddess  of  Goojarat — The 
Lions  of  Rajpootana — Sad  Letters  from  Home — A  Brahman  Butler  at  Edur — 
The  Bheels  and  Sir  James  Outram — Aboo  as  it  is — Gratitude  for  safe  Return 
— First  Mission  in  a  Native  State — Second  Visit  to  Rajkote — The  Prince's 
Difficulty  about  the  Existence  of  Evil — Mr.  Kerr's  Death — Dr.  Wilson's  nearly 
Fatal  Illness — Anna  Bayne's  Death — Cholera  Epidemic  of  1842 — Persuaded  to 
take  Furlough  by  prospect  of  a  Tour  in  Syria — Sir  W.  Hill's  Endowment  of 
the  Nagpore  Mission — Sir  W.  H.  Macnaghten — Sir  George  Arthur — Sir  Bartle 
Frere's  First  Friendship  with  Dr.  Wilson  — Sir  J.  P.  WiUoughby  on  the 
Proclamation  of  the  Gates — Dr.  Wilson's  Confidential  Reply  to  the  Docu- 
ment— Macaulay,  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  Lord  Ellenborough's  Recall. 


' l  A  gentle  Kniglit  was  pricking  on  the  Plaine, 
Ycladd  in  mightie  armes  and  silver  shielde, 
Wherein  old  dints  of  deepe  woundes  did  remaine, 
The  cruel  markes  of  many'  a  bloody  fielde ; 
Yet  armes  till  that  time  did  he  never  wield : 
His  angry  steede  did  chide  his  foniing  bitt, 
As  much  disdayning  to  the  curbe  to  yield : 
Full  jolly  Knight  he  seemd,  and  faire  did  sitt, 
As  one  for  knightly  giusts  and  fierce  encounters  fitt. 

"  And  on  his  brest  a  bloodie  Crosse  he  bore, 
The  deare  remembrance  of  his  dying  Lord, 
For  whose  sweete  sake  that  glorious  badge  he  wore, 
And  dead,  as  living  ever,  him  ador'd  : 
Upon  his  shield  the  like  was  also  scor'd, 
For  soveraine  hope,  which  in  his  helpe  he  had. 
Eight,  faithfull,  true  he  was  in  deede  and  word  j 
But  of  his  cheere  did  seeme  too  solemne  sad ; 
Yet  nothing  did  he  dread,  but  ever  was  ydrad. 

"  Upon  a  great  adventure  he  was  bond, 
That  greatest  Gloriana  to  him  gave, 
(That  greatest  Glorious  Queene  of  Faery  lond), 
To  winne  him  worshippe,  and  her  grace  to  have, 
"Which  of  all  earthly  thinges  he  most  did  crave  : 
And  ever,  as  he  rode,  his  hart  did  earne 
To  prove  his  puissance  in  battell  brave 
Upon  his  foe,  and  his  new  force  to  learne ; 
Upon  his  foe,  a  Dragon  horrible  and  stearne. 

"  A  lovely  Ladie  rode  him  faire  beside, 

Upon  a  lowly  Asse  more  white  than  snow ; 
Yet  she  much  whiter;  but,  the  same  did  hide 
Under  a  vele,  that  wimpled  was  full  low ; 
And  over  all  a  blacke  stole  shee  did  throw : 
As  one  that  inly  mournd,  so  was  she  sad, 
And  heavie  sate  upon  her  palfrey  slow ; 
Seemed  in  heart  some  hidden  care  she  had ; 
And  by  her  in  a  line  a  milke-white  lambe  she  lad." 

EDMUND  SPENSER  :  The  Faerie  Queene. 


1837.]  SUN-WOHSHIP  TESTED  BY  ARITHMETIC.  273 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DR.  WILSON'S  combined  missionary,  scientific,  and  archaeo- 
logical tours  in  the  second  period  of  six  years  which  preceded 
his  first  visit  to  Europe,  were  not  less  thorough  and  fruitful 
in  their  results  than  those  of  the  previous  six  years. 
February  1837  he  devoted  to  an  inspection  of  the  old  mission 
station  of  Hurnee  and  to  a  second  visit  to  the  Portuguese 
territory  of  Goa,  his  first  survey  of  which  had  led  him  to 
give  more  attention  to  the  many  Portuguese  and  their 
descendants  in  Western  India,  known  as  Indo-Britons.  It 
was  his  custom  to  examine  Government  as  well  as  missionary 
schools  at  the  request  and  generally  in  the  presence  of  the 
authorities,  wherever  he  went,  as  well  as  to  hold  services  for 
the  scattered  and  neglected  English  communities  in  distant 
stations.  To  the  Government  Marathee  school  of  Hurnee, 
the  pupils  of  which  he  found  remarkably  prompt  in  arith- 
metic, he  proposed  the  question  which  they  readily  solved, 
"  If  sound  travel  at  the  rate  of  1140  feet  a  second,  and  the 
sun  be  95,000,000  miles  distant  from  the  earth,  what  time 
will  be  required  for  a  man's  prayers  to  reach  that  luminary  ? " 
The  Brahmans  seemed  greatly  amazed  when  they  saw  the 
result  of  a  computation  which  really  involved  the  whole 
teaching  of  their  system.  The  examination  closed  with  the 
suggestion  to  the  Puntojee,  or  "  dominie,"  that  he  should 
extend  his  cross-examinations  to  the  scope  of  the  passages 
read  as  well  as  to  the  meaning  of  each  word.  The  boys  were 
rewarded  with  books,  and  their  parents  crowded  to  talk  with 
the  missionary  throughout  the  day.  At  Goa  Dr.  Wilson  found 

T 


274  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1837. 

that  a  great  change  had  taken  place  in  three  years.  The 
Inquisition  had  been  destroyed,  but  that  fact  was  officially 
assigned  as  a  reason  why  no  books  could  be  admitted  into 
the  settlement  without  the  permission  of  the  Archbishop  or 
the  Vicar-General.  After  a  week's  delay  Dr.  Wilson  thus 
appealed  to  the  civil  authorities  as  represented  by  the  Pro- 
visional Government : — "  Be  the  character  of  these  books  what 
it  may,  the  detention  of  them,  and  that  too  without  any 
examination,  is  contrary  to  the  principles  of  religious  tolera- 
tion recognised  by  the  constitution  of  Portugal,  and  every 
principle  of  justice  to  which  I  can  advert,  to  the  precedent  of 
1834,  and  to  what  I  believe  must  be  the  unanimous  dictate 
of  the  judgment  of  the  respected  gentlemen  who  now  exercise 
authority  in  this  place."  Dr.  Wilson  in  truth  knew  by  this 
time  that  the  two  Portuguese  gentlemen  who  formed  the 
Government  "  would  gladly  accept  Bibles  in  the  Portuguese 
language."  Soon  after  the  books  were  passed,  though  almost 
too  late  for  wide-spread  circulation.  The  number  of  the 
clergy  had  been  reduced  one-half  since  the  tour  of  1834,  and 
all  the  monastic  establishments  had  been  shut  up.  Their 
libraries  had  been  sold.  The  cruel  intolerance  of  Menezes, 
the  Synod  of  Diamper,  and  the  Inquisition,  was  avenged. 
To  this  day  the  Archbishop  of  Goa  finds  it  impossible 
to  assert  against  the  Belgian  or  French  Archbishops  of 
Madras  and  Bombay,  Calcutta  and  Agra,  who  are  directly 
subject  to  the  Vatican,  his  powers  under  the  old  Bull,  con- 
firmed by  two  Popes,  granting  to  Portugal  in  perpetuity 
whatever  lands  the  great  and  good  Prince  Henry  and  his 
successors  might  discover  from  West  Africa  to  the  Indies 
inclusive.1  The  Vicar-General  refused  the  gift  of  a  Portu- 
guese Bible,  alleging  that  the  use  of  the  translation  is  pro- 
hibited. When  asked  to  point  out  any  passages  erroneously 

1  See  Mr.  Major's  Discoveries  of  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator,  and  their 
Results.     1877. 


1837.]  ROMAN  CATHOLICISM  IN  GO  A.  275 

rendered,  he  exclaimed,  Plurimi  sunt,  plurimi  sunt,  as  he 
turned  the  leaves,  but  could  not  point  out  one.  Dr. 
Wilson  replied  to  him  in  the  words  of  David,  Testimonium 
Jekovae  verax,  sapientiam  afferens  imperito.  The  Vicar- 
General  then  changed  his  ground  to  the  charge  that  this 
version  omitted  the  Apocrypha,  a  point  of  which  an  early 
Edinburgh  controversy  had  made  Dr.  Wilson  master.  One 
of  the  clergy  gladly  took  a  Bible,  while  another  presented 
him  with  two  defences  of  Eoman  Catholicism  recently 
published  in  Colombo,  Ceylon,  and  full  of  flagrant  mistrans- 
lations of  Scripture.  This  passage  follows  in  Dr.  Wilson's 
account  of  the  tour,  sent  to  Dr.  Brunton : — 

"  A  respectable  Portuguese  officer  spent  the  evening  with  us.  His 
conversation  turned  principally  on  the  errors  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
of  many  of  which,  like  most  of  the  Roman  Catholic  lay  gentlemen 
whom  I  have  met  in  India,  he  seemed  to  be  well  aware,  and  on  the 
immoralities  of  some  of  the  clergy  in  the  State  of  Goa.  One  of  them, 
he  mentioned  to  us  there  could  be  little  doubt,  had  been  accessory  lately 
to  the  exposure  of  his  own  illegitimate  child,  the  body  of  which  he 
himself  found  in  the  course  of  being  devoured  by  ravens.  The  late 
archbishop  he  represented  as  one  of  the  greatest  debauchees  in  the 
colony.  We  heard  his  statements  with  pain,  though  we  did  not  much 
wonder  that  the  Papacy  had  been  tolerant,  nay,  productive  of  many  of 
the  crimes  which  he  mentioned.  Next  morning,  after  we  had  paid  a 
visit  to  Colonel  Joao  Casimir,  the  President  of  the  Provisional  Junta, 
my  books  were  sent  to  me  from  the  custom-house." 

This  passage  may  be  compared  with  the  picture  drawn  by 
the  late  Colonel  Meadows  Taylor  in  the  last  of  his  vivid 
romances  of  Indian  life  and  history,  A  Nolle  Queen.  The 
professors,  110  students,  and  resident  clergy,  at  the  college  of 
Eachol  in  Salsette,  showed  much  kindness  to  Dr.  Wilson,  and 
he  records  that  he  "  particularly  prepared  "  himself  for  a  Latin 
discussion  on  the  merits  of  the  Vulgate  and  Portuguese  trans- 
lations of  Scripture,  which  he  conducted  with  two  of  them. 
One  of  his  adversaries,  taking  him  aside  at  the  close,  confessed 


276  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1838. 

his  position  to  be  most  miserable,  and  was  invited  to  Bombay. 
His  reply  was  Est  mihi  voluntas  sed  valde  timeo.  All  through 
Goa  the  laity  showed  great  eagerness  for  copies  of  the 
G-entilismo  de  Papismo,  a  tractate  containing  correspondence 
between  Captain  Shortrede  and  Bishop  Prendergast  on  the 
heathenism  of  popery.  But  the  main  interest  now  of  this 
second  tour  to  Goa,  lies  in  the  opportunity  which  it  gave  Dr. 
Wilson  to  visit  and  describe  what  has  been  called  the  third  of 
the  greatest  wonders  of  India,  the  Gairsoppa  Falls,  the  Hima- 
layas and  the  Taj  Mahal  being  the  other  two.  The  four  falls 
have  since  become  famous  in  India,  but  the  best  English 
treatises  of  descriptive  or  physical  geography  are  still  ignorant 
of  them.  Some  340  miles  south-east  of  Bombay,  in  its  dis- 
trict of  North  Canara,  the  Sheravutty  divides  into  several 
channels  just  above  the  old  capital  of  Gairsoppa,  famous  three 
centures  ago  for  its  queen,  but  plundered  successively  by  the 
Portuguese,  Hyder  Ali,  and  Tippoo  Saheb,  and  taken  by  assault 
by  General  Matthews  a  century  ago.  Dr.  Wilson,  who  was 
accompanied  by  Dr.  Smyttan,  sent  an  account  of  the  falls 
to  his  old  professor,  Dr.  Jameson,  and  it  appeared  in  his 
Philosophical  Journal.  The  water  falls  eight  times  the  depth 
of  Niagara. 

The  brief  college  holiday  in  January  1838  was  devoted  to 
a  second  tour  to  Ajunta,  with  its  caves,  and  to  Jalna.  The 
incidents  are  most  pleasantly  told  by  Dr.  Wilson  in  letters  to 
the  sisters  Bayne.  The  effect  on  a  bangle  or  bracelet-seller 
of  one  of  the  vernacular  books  distributed  in  the  bazaar,  On 
the  Nature  of  God,  he  describes  to  have  been  "  such  as  I  have 
never  witnessed." 

"  2d  February  1838. — When  I  was  preaching  in  the  evening  a  man 
came  roaring  into  the  enclosure  in  such  a  loud  and  frantic  manner  that 
he  frightened  the  doctor,  myself,  and  all  present.  He  called  out  to  me 
in  the  most  awful  manner  which  you  can  imagine,  '  It  is  all  true,  It  is 
all  true,  It  is  all  true.  You  are  my  Gooroo,  You  are  my  Gooroo,  You 
are  my  Gooroo/  and  then  threw  himself  down  on  the  ground  with 


1838,]  THE  "POSSESSED"  SELLER  OF  BANGLES.  277 

such  violence  that  we  feared  he  had  fractured  his  skull.  He  quickly 
recovered  himself,  caught  hold  of  my  feet,  and  held  them  with  such 
force  that  I  was  obliged  to  call  on  the  people  to  extricate  me,  which 
with  great  difficulty  they  could  effect.  I  tried  to  calm  his  mind,  but 
his  excitement  gained  ground  notwithstanding  all  my  efforts.  His  body 
was  greatly  convulsed  ;  and  he  tossed  himself  and  tore  himself  in  the 
most  fearful  manner.  On  every  persoji  but  myself  he  loaded  the  vilest 
abuse,  and  particularly  on  two  of  his  relatives.  To  me  he  gave  ascrip- 
tions of  praise  proper  to  God  only  ;  and  extolled  me  as  the  lord  of 
Pandarpur,  and  several  other  idol-shrines.  He  cried  out  that  he  would 
never  leave  me  till  his  death,  which  he  declared  would  take  place 
before  the  close  of  the  evening.  It  was  now  but  too  evident  that  he 
was  labouring  under  temporary  derangement,  if  not  under  direct 
possession  of  the  great  adversary  of  souls,  which  the  peculiarities  of  his 
case  seemed  most  to  indicate  to  us,  notwithstanding  all  our  cautious 
reserve  of  judgment.  I  succeeded,  with  the  help  of  the  natives,  in 
getting  beyond  his  grasp  for  a  few  moments,  when  Dr.  Smyttan  and  I 
anxiously  consulted  together  about  what  was  proper  to  be  done.  We 
agreed  to  direct  our  whole  efforts  to  the  soothing  of  his  mind  ;  and  to 
his  friends,  who  ascribed  his  state  to  my  enchantment,  and  who  were 
afraid  that  we  should  carry  him  away  with  us,  we  gave  the  assur- 
ance that  I  receive  none  as  disciples  but  those  who  are  reasonably 
convinced,  and  that  we  should  render  them  every  assistance  in  our 
power  in  allaying  his  excitement.  He  would  listen  patiently  to  none 
of  my  counsel  or  instruction  ;  but  when  I  found  him  willing  to  follow 
me  I  took  him  by  the  hand  and  led  him  to  a  house  in  the  bazaar,  where 
his  friends  said  he  could  be  accommodated  for  the  night.  They  held 
him  to  the  ground,  while  we,  after  promising  to  call  upon  him  in  the 
morning,  took  our  departure.  After  fighting  with  them  for  some  time 
he  got  quite  exhausted,  and  sank  into  a  profound  sleep.  They  carried 
him  off  early  next  morning  before  we  could  hold  any  communication 
with  him.  He  belongs  to  the  village  of  Shiwand,  about  six  miles  from 
Ajunta.  He  had  proceeded  about  a  mile  on  his  return  from  the  bazaar 
to  that  place,  when  he  sat  down  to  read  the  tract ;  and  he  flew  to  me 
with  the  speed  of  lightning,  bursting  through  all  opposition,  after  his 
mind  began  to  be  affected.  He  is  a  man  whose  reason  was  never 
formerly  known  to  be  disordered.  What  his  first  emotions  were  on 
perusing  the  tract  it  is  impossible  to  say.  The  probability  from  his  own 
language  is,  that  he  gave  to  it  his  assent  at  the  same  time  that  Satan 
stirred  up  the  evil  feelings  of  his  mind  with  a  view  to  extinguish  his 
convictions,  and  to  misrepresent  our  cause  in  the  eyes  of  the  heathen. 


278  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1838. 

His  case  is  a  most  singular  one  ;  and  what  the  result  of  the  whole  may 
be  no  man  can  tell.  Our  prayers  ascended  to  heaven  that  Christ  might 
say  to  the  waves  of  his  affliction,  '  Be  still/  and  that  he  might  sit 
meekly  at  his  feet,  learn  his  Gospel,  and  receive  it  to  the  salvation  of 
his  soul.  At  what  I  have  told  you  you  will  no  doubt  be  astonished. 
I  trust  that  the  occurrence  has  been  blessed  to  me,  as  impressing  on 
my  mind  the  fact  that  we  are  either  the  savour  of  life  unto  life  or  death 
unto  death  to  those  to  whom  we  minister.  How  solemn  are  our 
circumstances  ! 

"  On  the  morning  of  the  29th  we  proceeded  to  the  caves,  which  are 
six  or  seven  miles  distant  from  the  town.  The  road  leads  down  the 
Ajunta  Ghat,  which  in  some  parts  is  steep,  though  not  very  difficult  in 
the  passage.  It  then  strikes  to  the  left  hand,  and  winds  through  jungle 
along  the  base  of  the  hill  which  we  descend,  and  up  through  a  wild 
dell  between  other  two  of  similar  altitude,  with  a  small  river  flowing 
below.  You  find  yourself  approaching  some  very  precipitous  rocks, 
about  250  feet  high,  without  discerning  any  outlet.  On  the  north 
side  of  the  river,  and  a  third  way  up  the  face  of  the  rocks,  the  mouths  of 
the  caves,  about  nineteen  in  number,  make  their  appearance.  The  curve 
of  the  rocks  in  which  they  are  is  somewhat  elliptical.  There  is  no  regular 
road  leading  from  one  excavation  to  another  ;  and  it  is  a  matter  of  no 
small  difficulty  to  reach  some  of  them.  The  entrances  of  four  of  them, 
are  arched,  and  those  of  the  others  are  nearly  square.  None  of  them  are 
high  ;  and  there  is  nothing  imposing  connected  with  them  as  at  Kanadi 
in  Salsette,  and  Karli.  The  principal  object  within  is  in  some  of  them 
the  dhagob,  forming  either  a  tomb  (or  the  representation  of  it),  in  which 
is  deposited  some  relic  of  a  Buddh,  and  in  others  a  statue  of  Buddh, 
generally  sitting  squatted,  and  hewn  out  of  the  solid  rock.  There  are 
various  ornamental  figures  cut  or  painted  on  the  walls  and  ceiling  and 
pillars,  both  in  the  principal  chambers  and  those  which,  in  the  days  of 
yore,  were  occupied  by  the  monks.  Among  these  some  antelopes  below 
the  pedestal  of  Buddh  are  pretty  well  executed.  Neither  the  sculpture 
nor  the  colourings,  however,  will  bear  to  be  compared  with  any  of  the 
products  of  Roman  or  Grecian  art.  The  paintings  are  by  no  means  so 
perfect  or  so  interesting  as  they  have  been  often  represented.  I  think 
that  we  see  in  them  attempts  at  the  delineation  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Asia,  in  which  Buddhism  is  spread  ;  but  I  must  say,  contrary  to  what 
has  been  alleged,  that  it  requires  a  great  stretch  of  imagination  to  make 
either  Africans  or  Europeans  out  of  them.  Some  of  the  figures  of 
flowers,  dolphins,  etc.,  have  probably  been  made  with  some  regard  to 
taste,  which  has  certainly  more  predominated  among  the  Buddhists 


1839.]  THE  AJUNTA  CAVE-TEMPLES.  2*79 

than  the  Brahmans,  who  generally  confine  themselves  to  the  routine  of 
their  symbols.  On  the  western  portico  of  two  of  the  arched  entrances 
there  are  inscriptions  in  the  common  cave  character,  though  of  a  small 
form.  They  have  been  much  injured  ;  and  we  found  it  impracticable 
to  take  a  fac-simile  of  them.  Captain  French  had  the  parts  of  them 
which  are  legible  copied  some  time  ago  ;  and  I  believe  that  they  will 
be  lithographed  in  Dr.  Bird's  account.  You  will  see  that  we  have  been 
disappointed  with  the  Ajunta  caves. 

"  The  town  of  Ajunta  itself  is  now  almost  depopulated.  The  wall 
which  surrounds  it,  however,  is  nearly  perfect,  and  very  neat.  At  one 
part  of  it  there  is  a  large  octagonal  serai,  in  which  the  sick  of  the 
British  army,  under  General  Wellesley,  now  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
were  accommodated  after  the  battle  of  Asai  in  1803,  when  the  com- 
bined forces  of  Sindia  and  the  Nagpur  raja  were  so  signally  defeated." 

Again,  at  the  beginning  of  1839,  he  roamed  among  the 
jungles  of  the  mainland,  studying  the  aboriginal  tribes,  and 
preparing  for  a  more  permanent  mission  among  them,  till  his 
stock  of  provisions  was  exhausted  and  his  purse  was  empty. 
He  was  to  meet  a  party  at  the  Caves  of  Elephanta,  to  which 
he  desired  that  ammunition  for  his  gun  might  be  sent.  The 
ardent  naturalist  writes : — "  I  wounded  an  eagle  the  other 
day  so  much  that  I  caught  it,  and  I  require  to  shoot  some 
birds  to  keep  it  in  life."  He  describes  himself,  at  this  time, 
as  "  quite  mad  upon  ornithology."  The  following  letter  makes 
more  revelations  regarding  the  Government  support  of  Hin- 
dooism,  and  introduces  the  second  Sir  Jarnsetjee  Jeejeebhoy, 
who  was  Dr.  Wilson's  fast  friend  till  the  death  of  both  of 
them  within  a  brief  period  of  each  other : — 

"  POONA,  29^  August  1839. — MY  DEAREST  ANNA. — On  Monday  I 
visited  Mr.  Baber,  and  found  him,  as  usual,  extremely  communicative. 
I  received  from  him  the  information  which  I  wanted  relative  to  the 
Cochin  Jews.  He  says  that  the  native  in  the  southern  Maratha 
country,  on  whose  account  he  has  suffered  so  much,  is  about  to  be 
found  guilty,  by  Mr.  Townsend,  of  several  serious  charges  brought 
against  him  by  Mr.  Simpson.  Should  this  be  the  case  Mr.  Baber  will 
be  relieved  from  much  trouble.  I  am  to  dine  with  Baber  to-morrow, 
at  his  brother-in-law,  General  Fearon's.  I  spent  Monday  evening  at 
Captain  Brett's,  where  a  number  of  the  Poona  worthies  were  present. 


280  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1839 

"  On  Tuesday  evening  I  went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Poona 
Cathedral — alias  the  shrine  of  Parvatee — which  is  situated  on  an 
eminence  that  overlooks  both  the  town  and  camp.  I  was  greatly 
tired  before  I  found  myself  in  her  highness's  presence,  though  to  a  per- 
son in  health  the  ascent  of  her  sacred  mount  is  a  work  of  no  great 
difficulty.  I  asked  the  priests  why  they  worshipped  an  idol,  and  they 
replied  to  my  question  by  inquiring  why  the  English  Sarkar  pays 
them  for  doing  so,  and  by  mentioning  that  it  contributes  to  Parvatee  the 
sum  of  Es.  1500  a-month!  The  Government,  I  said,  must  think  that 
the  idol  has  endowments  to  this  amount.  '  No,'  quoth  the  Bhudwas, 
'  it  acts  like  the  Peshwa ;  it  gives  of  its  own  free  will  to  our  establishment 
all  that  is  necessary  to  uphold  it.  Formerly  it  granted  us  about 
Rs.  2500  a-month,  but  on  the  recommendation  of  Mr.  Baber  it  has 
reduced  its  allowance  to  the  sum  which  we  have  mentioned.'  I  could 
not  but  heave  a  sigh  at  this  intimated  profanation  of  English  rule. 
Our  Government  continues  the  discretional  bounty  of  a  heathen  prince 
to  a  lifeless  idol,  confirms  the  wretched  natives  in  all  their  abominable 
and  degrading  superstitions,  and  deprives  itself  of  the  means  of  extend- 
ing the  benefits  of  a  right  education  throughout  the  country  !  And  for 
what  reason  does  it  thus  violate  the  precepts  of  heaven,  and  injure  its 
subjects?  For  no  other,  that  I  can  imagine,  than  that  it  fears  to  assume 
a  perfect  neutrality  in  reference  to  the  native  religions.  By  encouraging 
them  it  hopes  to  secure  their  affections,  while  it  in  fact  only  nurses 
the  elements  of  their  greatest  alienation  to  our  sway — those  connected 
with  the  monstrous  error  of  their  creed  and  religious  services.  There 
is  not  a  syllable  in  the  last  despatch  from  the  Court  of  Directors  about 
grants  to  temples,  though  a  casual  reader  may  suppose  that  they  may 
fall  to  the  ground  if  the  principles  of  that  despatch  be  carried  into 
effect.  Let  the  Christian  public  in  India  and  Britain  again  awake  to 
the  re-agitation  of  the  question  connected  with  the  Government  coun- 
tenance of  idolatry  in  India.  Let  it  plead  for  the  interdiction  of  all 
payments  to  heathen  temples,  to  heathen  priests,  and  to  heathen 
schools,  which  are  not  the  fruit  of  property  actually  legally  alienated 
to  them  by  chartered  deeds ;  and  let  it  cease  to  manage  that  property 
which  they  may  legally  claim.  This  is  the  grand  measure  which  Is 
imperiously  demanded  by  Christian  principle. 

"  When  we  were  returning  from  the  temple  we  met  Cursetjee 
Jamsetjee,  Esq.,  the  eldest  son  of  Jamsetjee  Jeejeebhoy.  He  shook 
hands  with  me  very  cordially,  and  impressed  me  with  the  belief  that 
lie  was  no  zealous  partizan  connected  with  the  late  proceedings  in  the 
Parsee  community.  He  expressed  a  wish  to  see  my  Sermon  ;  and  yes- 


1840.]  A  TOUR  IN  THE  HOT  SEASON.  281 

terday  morning  I  sent  him  a  copy,  with  a  suitable  note.  He  returned 
me  many  thanks  for  my  kindness,  and  forwarded  to  me  some  of  the 
native  newspapers  for  my  perusal. 

"  Yesterday  I  principally  spent  in  making  calls.  '  How  are  the 
Misses  Bayne  ! '  said  several  of  my  friends.  They  had  not  connected 
the  intimation  of  Mr.  Nesbit's  marriage  with  our  family  circle,  and 
they  were  much  surprised  that  my  bereavement  of  my  dear  sister  had 
not  been  mentioned  to  them  !  I  felt  rather  unwell  toward  the  evening, 
and  I  got  no  sleep  during  the  night  owing  to  sub-acute  pain  which  I 
felt  in  my  liver.  The  blue  pill,  of  which  I  have  received  a  supply, 
will  I  trust  relieve  me.  I  have  to-day  been  busy  with  my  missionary 


To  complete  his  survey  of  the  Native  States  around  the 
Province  of  Bombay,  and  to  seek  in  the  great  stone  cities  and 
deserts  of  Upper  India  forms  of  Hindooism  more  ancient  and 
more  directly  the  fruit  of  its  Yedic  and  Epic  times  than  even 
the  Brahmanism  of  Maharashtra  could  afford,  Dr.  Wilson  had 
resolved  to  assign  the  early  portion  of  1840  to  a  tour  in  south- 
western Eajpootana,  with  his  new  colleague  Dr.  Murray 
Mitchell.  The  visit  of  Dr.  Duff  delayed  their  departure,  but 
they  resolved  to  face  the  terrors  of  the  hot  season,  which  is, 
officially,  considered  to  begin  on  the  15th  March,  when  the 
cooling  punkah  is  for  the  first  time  in  each  year  allowed 
in  the  public  offices.  The  tour  may  well  begin  with  this 
characteristic  letter  from  its  first  stage  at  Tanna,  honourable 
alike  to  the  writer  and  to  Dr.  Duff.  The  Governor,  Sir  James 
E,.  Carnac,  pressed  upon  Dr.  Wilson  letters  of  introduction  to 
the  political  officers  on  his  way — all  of  whom  the  missionary 
well  knew — and  presented  him  with  an  unpublished  map  of 
the  Presidency  in  twenty-two  sheets  : — 

"  TANNA,  28th  February  1840. — MY  DEAREST  ANNA.— I  said  little 
to  you  when  I  parted  with  you,  because  I  felt  much  ;  but  I  offered  up 
to  God  the  fervent  prayer  that  his  divine  presence  might  remain  with 
us  while  we  are  separated  from  one  another.  My  supplication  was  not 
that  of  the  moment.  It  still  rises,  and  will  rise  from  my  heart,  as  I 
bend  my  footsteps  on  this  great  journey,  which  the  desire  of  publishing 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1840. 

peace  to  the  unsoothed  hearts  of  the  inhabitants  of  Goojarat  and  Rajpoo- 
tana  has  led  me  to  undertake.  You  must  conceive  of  me  as  always 
addressing  the  throne  of  heaven  on  your  behalf ;  and  I  shall  have  the 
same  realisation  of  your  blessed  employment  for  my  sake.  It  is  only 
when  our  desires  for  our  mutual  welfare  find  their  expression  God- 
ward  that  we  can  rest  with  confidence  in  the  view  of  all  that  may  await 
us. 

"  We  went  through  the  fatigues  of  yesterday  wonderfully  well  ;  and 
I  was  quite  refreshed  by  Dr.  Duff's  admiration  of  the  beauties  of  the 
Salsitian  landscape,  and  the  interest  which  he  felt  in  the  antiquities  of 
its  ancient  forests.  We  rode  together  in  the  phaeton  to  Vehar,  where 
we  met  with  Mr.  Nesbit,  Dr.  Campbell,  and  Mr.  Mitchell ;  and  after 
performing  the  usual  operations  of  conservatism  at  the  table  of  our  old 
friend  Merwanji,  we  sallied  forth  on  our  pilgrimage  to  the  excavated 
mount.  The  hamals  (bearers)  groaned  under  the  weight  of  their  precious 
load — the  apostle  of  the  Ganges ;  and  two  sturdy  bullocks,  Pandhya  and 
Sona,  dragged  a  crazy  chariot  containing  the  carcases  encasing  the  souls 
of  the  other  constituents  of  the  choice  fraternity.  We  were  forced  to 
dismount  about  a  couple  of  miles  from  the  abodes  of  the  Buddhas,  and 
with  staff  in  hand,  and  over-canopied  with  chattris  (umbrellas)  from 
the  west  and  the  east,  we  plied  our  steps  to  the  exalted  regions.  The 
sun  himself  entered  into  battle  with  us  on  the  way,  and  he  had  nearly 
overpowered  us  before  we  could  find  refuge  in  the  temple's  shade.  He 
applied  himself  so  sturdily  to  the  monk  of  the  Don  that  he  had  nearly 
succeeded  in  making  his  visage  glow  with  a  radiance  as  glorious  as  his 
own.  We  congratulated  ourselves  when  we  arrived  at  the  terminus 
ad  quern  that  we  were  not  reduced  to  cinders,  or  melted  into  minerals, 
by  his  furnace  heat.  Our  perambulations  in  the  caves  followed  a 
second  conservative  repast,  and  the  echo  of  our  eloquent  discourse 
caused  the  very  hills  to  shake.  The  images  themselves  told  us  what 
they  were  and  what  they  had  been,  and  pointed  us  to  the  tombs  in 
which  are  enshrined  the  relics  of  their  anti-type.  We  performed 
pradalcshina  round  the  Dhagobs,  reclined  on  the  living  couches  of  the 
devotees  of  Nirwan,  traversed  the  halls  of  instruction  of  the  primitive 
intellectualists,  peeped  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  ascended  the  lofty 
stairs,  and  gazed  on  the  beauty  and  grandeur  of  the  famed  isle. 

"  We  returned  to  Vehar  about  sunset,  and  mounted  our  steeds  for 
Tanna.  I  rode  along  with  Dr.  Campbell ;  and,  mirabile  dictu,  having  got 
into  a  brown  study  I  missed  the  road  in  the  dark,  and  did  not  recover 
my  senses  till  an  error  of  six  miles'  length  found  him  and  myself  in 
the  village  of  Bhandup,  in  the  wrong  direction.  Here  we  encountered 


1840.]  SUTTEE  ABOLISHED  IN  BAKODA.  283 

various  difficulties,  from  which  we  thought  we  had  delivered  ourselves 
by  committing  ourselves  to  the  care  of  a  Brahman  carrying  a  sword  and 
shield.  He  led  us  another  couple  of  miles  astray  ;  and  our  strength 
and  patience  had  nearly  failed  when  a  Fakeer  had  compassion  on  us, 
and  for  the  sake  of  Allah,  as  he  said,  turned  our  faces  in  the  direction 
of  Tanna,  which  we  reached  at  a  late  hour.  Our  friends,  who  had 
arrived  long  before  us,  were  overjoyed  when  they  found  that  we  had 
not  been  devoured  by  the  ghost  of  Jamshid,  or  Feridun,  or  some  other 
hero  of  ancient  Persia.  Something  more  than  the  excitement  of  fun 
and  frolic  filled  our  hearts  when  we  found  ourselves  safely  around  the 
table  in  the  traveller's  bungalow. 

"  I  cannot  tell  what  I  felt  when  dear  Mr.  Nesbit,  who  had  kept  his  in- 
tentions secret  in  the  chambers  of  his  own  individuality  during  the  day, 
announced  that  the  moment  had  arrived  when  he  and  Dr.  Duff  must 
proceed  to  Panwell,  and  that  without  the  formalities  of  worship,  which 
the  tide,  he  thought,  would  not  await.  We  resolved,  at  all  hazards, 
however,  to  part  calling  on  the  name  of  God  ;  and  after  reading  the 
20th  chapter  of  the  Acts  I  endeavoured  to  conduct  our  devotions.  My 
heart  completely  failed  me  when  I  was  praying,  but  not  before  many 
supplications  had  proceeded  from  its  inmost  recesses.  Dr.  Duff,  with 
whom  I  was  so  sorry  to  part  because  I  felt  that  I  should  not  again  see 
him  till  the  heavens  are  no  more,  addressed  to  us  the  words  of  comfort 
which  his  affectionate  heart  can  so  well  indite,  and  we  solemnly  bade 
each  other  farewell.  My  memory  will  often  visit  the  hallowed  spot 
whence  we  moved  asunder." 

This  tour  extended  over  a  distance  of  1525  miles.  At 
Baroda  Mr.  Sutherland,  the  Eesident,  not  unassisted  by  the 
influence  of  Dr.  Wilson  in  his  former  visit  to  the  Gaikwar, 
was  able  to  announce  the  abolition  of  Suttee  throughout  the 
extensive  territories  of  his  Highness.  Dr.  Wilson  was  unable 
to  wait  there  long  enough  to  accept  an  invitation  to  renew 
his  acquaintance  with  the  Gaikwar ;  but  had  much  intercourse 
with  his  nobles. 

"  I  had  a  long  private  interview  with  the  Eesident,  during  which  we 
discussed  at  considerable  length  the  abolition  of  Suttee  in  the  native 
States,  the  cessation  of  the  Government  countenance  of  idolatry,  the 
propriety  of  erecting  an  English  school  in  Baroda,  the  measures  to  be 
adopted  for  the  further  suppression  of  infanticide,  etc.  He  was  very 
free  and  candid  in  his  communications  ;  and  I  am  perfectly  satisfied 


284  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1840. 

that  lie  will  do  all  in  his  power  to  forward  the  cause  of  philanthropy. 
I  received  from  him  the  loan  of  several  interesting  works  and  docu- 
ments connected  with  the  country  and  the  native  Governments.  At 
the  Residency  I  met  an  important  native  personage  named  Govind 
Rao,  whose  son  was  adopted  by  the  late  Dewanjee  of  the  Baroda  State  ; 
and  who,  under  the  new  arrangements  with  our  Government,  has  been 
permitted  to  return  to  the  city  as  a  candidate  for  high  political  employ- 
ment under  the  Gaikawar.  Captain  Fawcett,  and  Mr.  Mitchell,  Dr. 
Campbell  and  I,  went  to  pay  a  visit  to  him  at  the  Divanji's  Wadi  in 
the  evening  of  the  21st  ult.  My  friends  were  mounted  on  Mr.  Suther- 
land's elephant,  which  outstepped  my  bearers  on  the  road  to  the  city. 
We  lost  sight  of  one  another  in  one  of  the  lanes  ;  and  the  wise  men 
who  were  bearing  me  took  me  to  the  house  of  the  king  instead  of  to  that 
of  his  minister  !  I  had  there  the  pleasure  of  seeing  two  of  the  Ranees 
(queens),  whose  curiosity  introduced  them  to  my  view  on  one  of  the 
staircases.  Having  explained  the  error  of  the  bipeds  to  the  guards 
around  me,  I  was  quickly  transported  to  what  ought  to  have  been  my 
first  destination.  I  found  the  trio  sitting  in  a  splendid  apartment, 
and  lost  in  wonder  at  the  marvels  around  them.  To  me  they  had 
little  novelty  ;  and  the  delay  which  had  occurred  in  my  movements 
consumed  the  time  which  should  have  been  devoted  to  religious  con- 
versation. Alas  !  The  first  movement  of  the  household  in  reference 
to  our  leaving  the  mansion  revealed  the  kindness  and  liberality  of  its 
owners.  Govind  Rao  rose  to  present  each  of  us  with  a  pair  of  Cash- 
mere shawls  and  a  turban  ;  and  he  succeeded  in  getting  us  to  accept 
of  them.  The  most  valuable  he  set  apart  for  myself  ;  those  next  in  a 
market-reckoning  to  Mr.  Mitchell.  Dr.  Campbell,  who  was  last  served, 
fared  worst.  I  determined  for  my  own  part  to  manage  so  as  to  give 
a  suitable  return ;  and  when  the  great  man  visited  us  with  his  followers 
on  the  23d,  I  presented  his  son  with  an  Atlas,  phenakistoscope,  and 
several  helps  to  the  acquisition  of  English  which  he  has  begun  to  study, 
and  himself  with  several  books.  It  was  a  relief  to  my  feelings  to  be 
able  to  give  him  an  exposition  of  Christian  doctrine  when  he  waited 
upon  us.  The  Brahmans  who  attended  him,  as  well  as  himself,  were 
very  attentive  to  what  I  said.  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  that  he 
accompanied  us  to  his  gardens,  which  are  in  excellent  order.  The 
first  fruits  of  the  season  were  destined  for  our  use  ;  and  three  men 
followed  us  home  with  baskets  filled  with  them. 

"  The  Nawab,  whose  brother  you  saw  in  Bombay  when  on  his  way 
to  Mecca,  called  upon  us  on  the  21st.  He  afterwards  sent  us  a  written 
invitation,  which  I  enclose,  and  which  is  sufficiently  precise  and  amus- 


1840.]  A  MUHAMMADAN  ENTERTAINMENT.  285 

ing.  We  asked  him  to  convert  the  dinner  into  a  breakfast,  which  he 
most  readily  did  ;  and  we  resolved  to  avail  ourselves  of  his  hospitality. 
Captain  James  and  Lieutenant  Lucas,  and  the  young  Hewetts  were  with 
us  his  guests.  Victoria  herself,  I  guess,  could  not,  with  the  aid  of  all 
her  Welsh,  French,  and  German  cooks,  give  us  such  a  repast.  And  as 
to  the  tamdshd  which  followed,  or  rather  which  was  proposed,  for  much 
of  it  we  prevented,  I  know  not  how  to  characterise  it.  It  consisted 
chiefly  of  a  review  of  all  the  Damascus,  Khorassan,  Iran,  Arab,  Turkish, 
and  English  blades  ;  swords,  sabres,  daggers,  bayonets,  dirks,  creeses,  etc.; 
of  all  the  guns,  carbines,  blunderbusses,  muskets,  pistols,  and  rifles  ; 
and  of  all  the  birds  and  beasts  of  war,  from  the  partridge  to  the  tiger, 
which  are  to  be  found  in  the  Nawab's  museum  and  offices.  Then  we 
had  the  hookah,  the  chilam,  the  pipe,  and  other  fumeries  ;  rosewater, 
attar,  arall,  and  other  perfumeries  ;  flowers  and  roses  ;  fruits  and  roots  ; 
sweets  and  sours  and  bitters,  usque  ad  nauseam.  How  could  I  bear 
all  this  ;  how  could  I  be  present  when  this  display  was  made  ?  I  know 
not  whether  or  not  I  may  not  have  failed  sufficiently  to  testify  against 
the  folly  of  the  world.  I  allowed,  however,  nothing  to  be  done  which 
appeared  to  be  wrong  ;  and  I  failed  not  to  declare  that  we  are  messen- 
gers of  peace,  and  to  point  to  that  time  when  men  shall  beat  their 
swords  into  ploughshares  and  their  spears  into  pruning-hooks  ;  and  to 
put  into  his  hands  the  words  of  Him  who  neither  cried  nor  lifted  up  His 
voice  in  the  streets,  but  Who  himself  was  led  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter, 
and  as  a  sheep  before  her  shearers  is  dumb,  so  He  opened  not  His 
mouth,  and  the  testimony  of  some  of  His  servants  as  to  its  purity 
integrity,  and  authority.  The  Nawab  acknowledged  my  gift  by  present- 
ing me  with  a  box  of  bloodstone  set  in  silver.  Neither  he  nor  his  brother 
ate  with  us  while  we  sat  at  table.  They  excused  themselves  on  the  ground 
of  indisposition,  but  declared  themselves  perfectly  at  liberty  to  associate 
with  us  as  brethren  of  the  board." 

From  Baroda  Dr.  Wilson  and  his  companion  marched 
through  the  level  country  of  Goojarat,  by  Khaira  to  which  he 
sought  to  induce  the  Church  to  send  a  missionary.  His  journal 
corrects  a  few  of  "  the  most  amusing  blunders  "  of  that  very 
inaccurate  but  most  pleasant  book,  Bishop  Heber's  Narrative. 
Here  he  had  much  discussion  with  the  Jains,  one  of 
whom  proposed  to  write  a  reply  to  his  letter  to  the  priests  of 
Palitana.  Lieutenant  Pilfold,  "  an  excellent  Sanscrit  scholar," 
copied  for  him  Sanscrit  inscriptions  on  his  march  to  Deesa  by 


286  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1840. 

Ahmedabad,  Khaira,  Puttun,  and  Palilunpoor.  At  Puttun 
("  the  city "),  the  ancient  capital  of  Goojarat,  they  were  met 
by  Captain  Lang,  the  scholarly  political  agent.  After  cross- 
examining  a  young  Hindoo  ascetic,  so  as  to  discover  for  the 
first  time  that  the  lengthened  hair  of  these  devotees  is  caused 
by  twisting  to  the  growth  the  thinning  which  is  taken  from  it, 
the  party  proceeded  to  survey  the  ruins. 

"  5th  April. — Our  guides  had  been  procured  by  Captain  Lang,  and, 
including  a  Bliat  (bard)  brought  at  my  special  request,  they  proved  most 
zealous  and  attentive.  We  could  distinctly  trace  the  ancient  course  of  the 
Saras  wati,  which  must  have  formerly  passed  under  the  walls  of  the 
town. .  .  .  Not  far  from  the  tank  are  the  remains  of  a  large  well  called 
the  Eanis  Kua,  the  carved  work  of  which  is  most  extensive  and  tasteful, 
and  must  have  cost  much  more  than  the  similar  work  at  Adalij,  for 
which  were  paid  five  lakhs  of  rupees.  Some  Jain  temples  in  another 
direction  were  also  inspected  by  us.  They  are  ascribed  to  Sadra 
Jayasingh,  one  of  the  Jain  princes  of  Goojarat.  When  I  heard  the 
name  of  this  sovereign  I  examined  the  Bhat  as  to  his  knowledge  of  his 
progenitors  and  successors  ;  and  I  was  delighted  to  find  him  produce 
a  little  work,  which  may  be  denominated  the  annals  of  Puttun,  which 
contained  all  the  information  which  I  could  desire.  Having  Mr. 
Prinsep's  tables  in  my  hands,  I  compared  with  it  the  genealogies  of  the 
Ayin  Akbari  and  Agni  Puran,  and  found  the  different  documents  in 
many  respects  corroborative  of  one  another.  The  bard  gave  me  the 
promise  of  a  copy  of  his  work  ;  and  Captain  Lang  having  seen  to  its 
fulfilment  since  I  left  Puttun,  I  have  now  the  treasure  in  my  posses- 
sion. I  have  perused  the  whole  of  it.  Who  knows  but  a  translation 
of  it,  with  remarks,  may  yet  form  a  chapter  in  my  researches  ?  I  am 
persuaded  that  many  valuable  historical  gleanings  are  to  be  obtained 
from  the  traditions  and  chronicles  of  the  Bhats  and  Charans  (bards  and 
annalists).  I  suspect  that  most  of  Colonel  Tod's  information  about  the 
Rajpoot  States  was  procured  in  this  manner. 

"  On  our  return  from  our  expedition  we  had  many  conferences 
with  the  most  respectable  natives  of  the  place,  who  came  to  visit  us  at 
Captain  Lang's  tents.  Their  attention  to  the  word  spoken,  and  their 
desire  to  become  acquainted  with  the  principles  of  Christianity,  favour- 
ably contrasted  with  what  I  have  sometimes  witnessed  amongst  their 
compeers  in  Maharashtra.  There  is  less  bigotry  in  Goojarat  than  in 
most  other  districts  of  India.  Its  present  religious  state  is  worthy  of  a 
distinct  exposition. 


1840.]  ON  THE  CONFINES  OF  RAJPOOTANA.  287 

"  A  highly  respectable  Brahman  youth  agreed  with  me  to  go  to 
Bombay  for  the  prosecution  of  his  studies  and  religious  inquiry.  He 
will  gain  his  own  livelihood  by  his  labours  as  a  teacher  of  Goojaratee. 
He  is  espoused  to  the  daughter  of  the  chief  Acharya  (priest)  of  the 
Audich  Brahmans.  He  is  a  youth  of  the  highest  promise  ;  and  we 
have  found  him  very  useful  in  our  travels. 

"  I  had  a  congregation  in  the  bazaar  amounting  to  800,  who  could 
distinctly  hear  my  voice  as  I  called  them  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come,  and  to  take  refuge  in  the  grace  of  Jesus.  Oh,  how  it  moves  one's 
soul  to  give  the  first  testimony  for  our  Lord  and  Master  in  such  cir- 
cumstances. Oh,  Anna,  pray  that  I  may  feel  the  power  of  the  message 
which  I  announce." 

At  Pahlunpoor,  one  of  the  vassal  states  of  the  Gaikwar, 
the  Dewan  held  a  durbar  or  court  for  the  reception  of  the 
missionaries.  He  was  Futh  Khan,  whom  we  had  put  on  the 
throne  as  the  rightful  heir  of  the  Afghan  Chief  first  recog- 
nised by  Akbar,  to  a  principality  which  the  Eajpoot  Chief  of 
Jodhpore  had  reduced  to  Pahlunpoor  and  Deesa.  He  lived  till 
1854,  having  been  first  acknowledged  in  1794,  and  his  son  still 
rules  after  loyal  services  in  the  Mutiny.  The  most  interest- 
ing visitor,  however,  was  a  Muhammadan,  who  had  lived  nine 
years  in  the  Hedjaz  of  Arabia.  He  gave  Dr.  Wilson  a  de- 
scription of  the  Hajar-as-Swad,  exactly  corresponding  with  the 
engraving  in  Burkhardt's  travels,  but  without  expressing  par- 
ticular veneration  for  the  sacred  stone,  the  most  venerable 
relic  of  antiquity  in  the  eyes  of  Mussulmans.  The  British 
cantonment  of  Deesa,  eighteen  miles  from  the  Dewan's 
capital,  was  next  visited,  and  the  Sepoy  regimental  school 
was  examined  through  Marathee.  Its  fifty-five  pupils  and 
regimental  boys  flocked  to  Dr.  Wilson's  tent  for  books,  and 
there  he  instructed  them  in  Christianity.  "Many  of  the 
youth  in  the  Army,"  he  writes  on  this  occasion,  "  in  conse- 
quence of  its  discipline  and  arrangements  have  had  their 
faith  in  Hindooism  greatly  shaken.  They  are  very  observant 
of  the  walk  and  conversation  of  their  officers,  and  they 
generally  respect  those  of  them  who  are  imbued  with  the 


288  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSOX.  [1840. 

spirit  of  Christianity ! "  Here  Dr.  Wilson  was  surprised  by 
coming  into  contact  with  one  of  the  many  proofs,  apparent 
to  the  experienced  and  unprejudiced  observer  of  Hindoo 
society,  that  the  leaven  of  Christianity  is  working  by  means 
and  in  directions  such  as  no  statistics  can  tabulate  nor 
formal  report  record.  The  subsequent  history  of  Christianity 
in  India  has  revealed  many  similar  cases  of  quasi- Christian 
sects,  of  "  almost  Christians,"  of  "  secret  Christians,"  and  of 
Christian  heresies  and  apostasies,  caused  by  such  an  admix- 
ture of  pantheistic  speculation  with  Christ's  teaching  as  Gnos- 
ticism, Alexandria,  and  the  early  Oriental  Churches  illustrate. 

"  I2th  April. — We  met  three  natives  at  Dr.  Robson's  door,  who  said 
that  they  had  been  going  about  the  camp  in  search  of  us,  in  consequence 
of  the  report  of  my  having  preached  in  the  town  of  Deesa.  To  my 
inquiry,  '  Who  are  you  ? '  they  readily  and  emphatically  answered, 
'  We  are  Christians'  We  immediately  repaired  with  them  to  the  bun- 
galow in  which  we  were  holding  our  meetings  ;  and  I  conversed  with 
them,  and  addressed  them  respecting  the  interests  of  their  immortal 
souls.  The  individual  who  took  the  lead  in  the  conference  with  me 
stated  that  he  is  a  Bhagat,  devoted  to  the  service  of  Christ,  that  his 
name  is  Narottam  Ladha,  and  that  his  class  is  that  of  the  Lawana  ;  one 
of  his  companions,  that  he  is  a  disciple  of  Narottam,  named  Daman 
Deva,  and  of  the  Khatree  class  ;  and  the  other,  that  he  is  a  Jain  Mehta, 
named  Natharam  Dalichand,  and  an  inquirer  into  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  of  the  truth  of  which  he  is  thoroughly  convinced.  Nar- 
ottam remarked  that  he  teaches  Christianity  to  those  who  listen  to  him, 
and  receives  the  support  which  they  voluntarily  afford.  His  knowledge, 
he  said,  he  had  received  from  books,  and  from  conversation  with  a 
native  convert  from  Bengal,  named  Kamilakant  Rao.  His  profession  of 
Christianity  he  had  assumed,  and  his  attempts  to  propagate  Christianity 
he  had  commenced  and  carried  on  without  any  consultation  with  Euro- 
peans. He  had  seen  the  Bishop  of  Bombay,  however,  and  Mr.  Fletcher, 
on  the. occasion  of  their  visit  to  Deesa  last  year,  and  is  acquainted  with 
Mr.  Pemberton,  the  chaplain,  whose  services  in  the  church  he  sometimes 
attends,  with  a  partial  knowledge  of  what  is  said  though  he  himself  is 
unable  to  converse  in  English.  I  found,  on  examination,  that  he  is 
well  acquainted  with  the  principal  facts  recorded  in  the  New  Testament. 
His  views  of  the  offices  of  the  persons  of  the  Holy  Trinity  appeared,  in 


1840.]     HINDOO  CHRISTIANS  WITHOUT  FOREIGN  TEACHING.      289 

the  first  instance,  to  be  obscure,  but  after  I  had  delivered  an  exposition 
to  him  on  the  subject,  I  perceived  that  they  were  more  extensive  and 
correct  than  I  had  supposed.  He  distinctly  ascribed  the  origination  of 
the  plan  of  human  redemption  to  the  Father,  its  accomplishment  to  the 
work  and  merit  of  the  Son,  and  its  application  to  the  agency  of  the 
Spirit,  of  whose  various  operations  he  spoke  in  a  manner  strictly  con- 
sistent with  the  divine  testimony.  Both  Mr.  Mitchell  and  myself  felt 
the  greatest  interest  in  him  and  his  friends,  and  we  invited  him  to 
return  to  us  at  the  conclusion  of  English  worship  in  the  camp. 

"  Narottam  made  his  appearance  at  the  time  appointed,  along  with 
the  persons  already  mentioned,  and  Jawer,  a  barber,  who  represented 
himself  as  an  '  established  believer'  in  Christ,  and  Mancharam,  a 
respectable  Mehta,  who  said  that  he  wished  himself  to  be  considered  as 
merely  in  the  capacity  of  an  inquirer.  The  Bhagat,  at  my  request, 
gave  me  a  particular  account  of  his  past  history,  his  present  engage- 
ments, and  the  circumstances  of  his  followers.  He  was  born  in  Bombay 
about  thirty  years  ago,  his  father  being  a  native  of  Bhownuggur,  in 
Kathiawar,  Six  years  ago  he  received  from  a  soldier  in  the  camp 
bazaar  at  Deesa,  a  copy  of  a  Goojaratee  tract,  entitled  '  The  Great 
Inquiry,'  and  a  Marathee  tract  superscribed  '  The  First  Book  for  Chil- 
dren.' He  read  both  of  these  little  publications  with  the  greatest  atten- 
tion, and  the  consequence  of  his  acquaintance  with  them  was  the 
awakening  of  great  anxiety  about  the  salvation  of  his  soul.  Seeing  on 
one  of  them  a  notice  of  different  mission  stations  where  information 
respecting  their  contents  could  be  found,  he  determined  to  betake  him- 
self to  that  which  was  most  accessible.  He  went  on  his  way  to  Surat 
as  far  as  Ahmedabad.  He  was  there  assailed  by  various  idolaters,  who 
represented  the  missionaries  to  him  as  too  powerful  in  their  influence 
over  the  minds  of  those  who  come  into  close  contact  with  them.  Dur- 
ing his  stay  at  Ahmedabad  he  met  with  Jayasingh,  the  hereditary 
Kamavisdar  of  Kadee,  a  most  intelligent  gentleman,  with  whom  we  had 
a  very  agreeable  interview  on  our  visit  to  his  native  place.  Jayasingh's 
followers  said  to  him,  '  There  are  many  Fakeers,  Bairagees,  Gosavees, 
etc.,  in  the  country,  why  don't  you  unite  yourself  with  one  of  their  fra- 
ternities ; '  but  their  master,  when  he  had  a  private  opportunity  afforded 
him,  said,  '  I  have  as  much  need  of  God  as  you,  stay  with  me  ;  when  I 
hear  of  a  teacher  I  will  send  for  him.'  This  invitation  was  complied 
with  ;  and  he  to  whom  it  was  addressed  resided  for  five  months  at 
Kadee,  when  the  failure  of  the  money  which  he  had  carried  from 
Deesa,  the  usual  place  of  his  residence,  forced  him  again  to  proceed 
northward.  About  half  a  year  after  his  return  to  the  camp  bazaar  he 

U 


290  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1840. 

met  with  Kamilakant,  already  mentioned,  and  began  to  associate  with 
him,  and  to  accompany  him  occasionally  to  church.  By  the  perusal 
of  some  Goojaratee  books,  portions  of  the  Bible,  and  tracts  which  he 
obtained,  and  by  conversation  with  his  friend  from  Bengal,  he  became 
convinced  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  surety  and  Saviour  of  men,  and 
resolved,  without  consulting  with  flesh  and  blood,  to  devote  himself  to 
His  service,  in  which  he  has  now  been  engaged  for  a  considerable  time. 
He  reads  and  expounds  the  Scriptures,  according  to  the  light  which  he 
has  obtained,  to  all  who  will  listen  to  him.  Seven  of  his  acquaintances, 
he  says,  have  received  the  truth  in  the  love  of  it,  and  avow  themselves 
to  be  disciples  of  the  Eedeemer.  About  a  hundred  persons  appear  to 
be  sincere  inquirers.  About  20  or  25  of  them  reside  in  Deesa,  10  or 
15  at  Pahlunpoor,  40  at  Puttun,  2  at  Vijapoor  and  Kadee,  10  at  Baroch, 
and  5  at  Baroda.  Many  other  individuals  hold  religious  intercourse 
with  him  ;  and  there  is  in  various  places  a  growing  attachment  to  the 
divine  word.  All  his  temporal  wants  are  supplied  by  his  followers,  and 
Asharam,  a  merchant,  shows  him  particular  kindness. 

"  After  he  had  given  me  this  narrative,  he  asked  me  to  explain  to 
him  many  passages  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  which  he  had  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  understand.  I  was  surprised  at  the  degree  of  intelligence  which 
his  inquiries  evinced,  and  at  the  readiness  with  which  he  received  my 
expositions.  He  clearly  showed  that  he  reads  the  Bible  with  the 
greatest  attention,  and  that  he  is  no  stranger  to  the  analogy  of  the 
faith.  He  had  no  objection,  he  said,  to  be  baptized  ;  but  he  added  that, 
though  not  recognised  as  a  teacher  by  Europeans,  he  would  minister  to 
his  native  flock  as  long  as  its  members  might  choose  to  attend  to  him. 
Some  of  the  rules  of  the  Hindoo  devotees  he  thought  it  expedient  to 
apply  to  his  services.  He  wishes  to  be  considered  a  Bhagat,  and  not  a 
Gooroo.  '  Gooroos,  like  yourself,'  he  said,  '  I  shall  ever  attend  when  I 
have  the  opportunity.'  Such  of  his  friends  as  were  present  expressed 
the  same  determination.  Though  we  saw  a  good  deal  of  superstition 
in  some  of  their  notions  we  were  rejoiced  to  find  that  they  were  far 
from  being  ignorant  of  the  most  important  truths.  I  read  my  letter  to 
the  Jain  priests  to  the  company,  and  conversed  about  some  of  the 
topics  on  which  it  touches.  I  then  delivered  a  practical  address  suited 
to  the  circumstances  of  my  audience,  and  closed  our  meeting  with 
prayer.  The  immediate  objects  of  our  regard  were  evidently  much 
affected  during  the  latter  exercise,  and  they  grasped  my  hand  in  the 
most  tender  manner  when  I  ceased  to  address  the  Throne  of  Grace  on 
their  behalf.  On  parting  with  us  they  readily  acquiesced  in  a  proposal 
to  correspond  with  our  Native  Church  in  Bombay. 


1840.]  IN  THE  RAJPOOTANA  DESERT.  291 

"  I  do  not  know  how  you  and  my  other  friends  in  Bombay  will 
receive  this  intelligence.  For  my  own  part,  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying  that  the  privilege  of  communicating  it  is  to  us  a  sufficient 
recompense  for  the  long  journey  which  we  have  undertaken  at  this  try- 
ing season.  The  simple  spread  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  in  this  moral 
wilderness,  independently  of  the  hope  which  this  case  affords  that  real 
conversion  may  have  occurred,  demands  the  fervent  gratitude  of  all  His 
people,  and  forms  a  mighty  encouragement  to  the  dissemination  of  the 
holy  Scriptures  and  religious  tracts  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land.  The  Apostle  Paul  and  his  companions  met  with  '  disciples ' 
in  different  cities  before  they  had  commenced  in  them  their  own  per- 
sonal ministrations,  and  before  elders  were  ordained  to  watch  over  their 
spiritual  interests  as  '  those  who  must  give  an  account/  and  so  have  we 
found  persons  who  appear  to  be  deserving  of  the  name  in  a  situation 
where  we  least  expected  them.  .  .  . 

"  On  the  25th  of  April  we  left  Amba  Bhowanee  for  Danta,  the 
capital  of  its  Hand,  who  receives  as  his  due  the  offerings  presented  to 
the  goddess.  We  quenched  our  thirst  at  Nana  Bhai  Ka  Bawadi,  a  well 
tended  by  a  devout  Bairagee  (ascetic),  originally  from  Nagpore.  He  is, 
without  exception,  one  of  the  kindest  and  most  considerate  persons  of  his 
class  whom  I  have  met  in  India,  and  a  very  respectable  Sanscrit  scholar. 
I  gave  him  a  brief  outline  of  the  Christian  faith,  but  he  hesitated  about 
the  reception  of  a  tract.  '  If  I  take  it/  he  said,  '  I  shall  probably  incur 
the  displeasure  of  the  goddess.'  During  the  night  we  heard  lions 
roaring  in  our  neighbourhood,  and  one  of  them  approached  our  resting- 
place,  not  indeed  to  devour  the  intrepid  travellers,  but  to  quench  its 
thirst  at  a  well  in  our  neighbourhood.  The  king  of  the  forest  was 
followed,  at  a  respectful  distance,  by  bears,  jackals,  and  porcupines. 

"  The  26th  of  April  was  the  Sabbath  ;  and  after  the  toils  of  the 
week  I  found  its  rest  most  refreshing,  both  to  my  outward  and  inward 
man.  I  received  on  it  the  home  letters  which  arrived  by  the  steamer, 
and  they  awoke  very  deep  and  peculiar  emotions  in  my  soul.  The 
illness  of  my  beloved  children,  with  their  subsequent  deliverance, 
affected  me  much  ;  and  I  felt,  perhaps,  more  strongly  than  ever,  that 
they  are  the  Lord's,  and  that  I  must  cheerfully  submit  to  his  disposal 
of  them.  I  had  great  delight  in  commending  them  to  the  loving-kind- 
ness of  their  covenant  God,  and  praying  that  grace  may  be  imparted 
in  great  abundance  to  my  beloved  sister  in  whose  charge  they  are  now 
placed.  The  proposal  of  the  Calvinistic  Methodists  to  commence  a 
mission  in  India  delighted  me  much,  and  I  found  in  it  the  fulfilment 
of  a  long  cherished  desire.  The  sums  voted  by  the  Bible  Society  will 


292  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  P840. 

contribute  much  to  the  multiplication  of  copies  of  the  sacred  records  in 
our  benighted  provinces.  The  situation  of  our  Church  at  home  is  most 
trying  ;  but  if  its  ministers  continue  faithful  it  will  receive  in  rich 
abundance  the  blessing  of  the  Lord. 

"  29th. — After  a  long  and  tiresome  ride  we  arrived  in  Edur,  which 
may  with  propriety  be  denominated  the  capital  of  the  jungles.  It  is 
situated  between  two  hills,  which  appear  covered  with  large  granitic 
rocks  most  romantically  disposed  of ;  and  most  beautiful  trees  are 
planted  throughout  its  different  waclas.  We  were  kindly  received  by 
the  native  agent  of  the  English  Government  at  the  court  of  the  Eaja, 
and  by  the  relatives  of  the  Prince  ;  and  we  regaled  ourselves  on  the 
viands  which  they  had  provided  for  our  breakfast.  A  Brahman  acted 
as  our  butler,  and  he  was  most  attentive  both  in  urging  us  to  eat,  by 
lauding  the  dainties  which  were  before  us,  and  doing  all  he  could  by 
his  own  hands  to  compensate  for  the  want  of  knives,  and  forks,  and 
spoons  ! 

"  A  durbar  was  held  in  the  afternoon  on  our  account.  The  youth- 
ful prince,  who  is  only  nine  years  of  age,  acted  his  part  remarkably 
well.  He  relished  our  visit  exceedingly,  and  everything  about  us 
seemed  to  excite  his  curiosity,  and  to  call  forth  remark  and  inquiry. 
•His  ministers  had  taught  him  a  set  of  questions  to  address  to  us,  with 
the  view  of  supporting  the  dignity  and  grace  of  the  gadi  (royal  cushion) ; 
but  of  them  he  made  a  most  ridiculous  use,  and  that  to  the  great  con- 
fusion of  his  counsellors.  Instead  of  putting  them  to  us  seriatim,  and 
waiting  for  an  answer,  he  asked  them  all  in  one  breath,  and  said, 
'  Now  I  have  done  with  them ! '  So  much  for  royal  parrots.  I  felt  a 
great  love  for  the  boy,  and  I  could  not  but  admire  his  manner  and 
appearance.  By  way  of  examining  him  as  to  his  progress  in  education 
we  asked  him  to  furnish  us  with  a  specimen  of  his  handwriting.  He 
wrote  in  Devanagree  letters,  '  Captain  William  Lang,  Saheb  Bahadoor, 
Political  Agent,  Prant  Mahi-KantaV  When  he  had  done  this,  his  gooroo 
said,  '  You  have  forgotten  to  write  the  usual  salutation  to  Shri  Rama- 
chandra ; '  and  he  immediately  supplied  the  omission.  How  melan- 
choly it  was  to  observe  the  watchfulness  exercised  as  to  the  teaching 
and  practice  of  superstition.  I  said  to  the  boy,  in  the  most  affectionate 
tone,  '  Remember  the  Supreme.'  He  readily  assented ;  but  he  was 
immediately  told  by  the  Brahmans  and  his  Rajpoot  relatives  that 
Bhagawan  and  Ram  are  identical.  I  presented  him  with  a  new  patent 
ink  glass  and  several  engravings,  with  which  he  was  greatly  delighted. 
He  ordered  a  sirpdo  of  fifty  rupees  to  be  given  to  us,  which,  with  the 
advice  of  the  English  Vakeel  (agent),  we  accepted  ;  determining  at  the 


1840.]  THROUGH  THE  BHEEL  COUNTRY  TO  BOMBAY.  293 

same  time  to  convert  it  into  suitable  presents  to  the  donor,  and  other 
native  chiefs  whom  we  may  meet." 

Dr.  Wilson  had  now  passed  through  that  wild  Bheel 
country  on  the  Maheekanta  and  Eajpootana  frontier,  which 
Sir  James  Outram  had  in  1838  pacified  and  done  much  to 
civilise,  but  we  have  no  trace  of  a  meeting  between  men  who 
must  have  appreciated  each  other.  It  is  to  be  regretted  too 
that  we  have  here  no  detailed  description  of  that  mountain  of 
the  Jains — Aboo — which  in  1840  was  purely  native.  Five 
years  after  his  visit  the  Eao,  Sheo  Singh,  made  over  to  the 
British  Government  lands  for  a  sanitarium,  which  became  the 
favourite  resort  of  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  and  his  successors  to 
the  present  day.  The  reigning  chief,  son  of  Dr.  Wilson's 
friend  who  died  a  few  weeks  before  the  missionary  himself, 
is  now  of  age,  and  still  insists  on  the  one  condition  of  the 
grant,  that  no  kine  shall  be  killed  on  the  holy  mount  of  the 
Jains. 

Marching  forward  thus  through  the  country  between  the 
Aboo  and  Aravullee  hills  and  the  wild  Bheel  land,  and 
away  by  Sadra  on  the  Saburmuttee,  Dakore,  famed  in 
Hindoo  pilgrimage,  and  the  Baria  and  Champaner  jungles, 
south-east  to  the  great  Nerbudda  river,  Dr.  Wilson  and  his 
companions  had  to  climb  the  low  Satpoora  range  before 
reaching  the  Maratha-desolated  plains  of  Khandesh.  Thence 
by  Dhoolia  and  Malligaum  Bombay  was  reached  in  the 
middle  of  June,  after  a  journey  unmatched  at  that  time  by 
any  save  officials  on  military  or  most  urgent  duty,  whether 
we  look  at  the  terrific  heat  or  the  desert  and  dangerous  lands. 

Soon  he  prepared  a  series  of  lectures  on  a  tour  which,  even 
to  the  few  experienced  travellers,  English  and  native,  who  had 
gone  over  the  same  route,  were  full  of  the  highest  instruction. 
It  is  long  since  the  railway  reached  Ahmedabad  from  Bombay, 
and  the  line  has  already  penetrated  from  Calcutta  to  Jeypore 
for  the  salt  of  the  Sambhur  Lake.  It  cannot  be  long  till 


294 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1841. 


Ahmedabad  and  Jeypore  are  connected  by  a  line  which  will 
follow  Dr.  Wilson's  route  away  by  Aboo  to  Palee  and 
Ajmer,  to  which  he  afterwards  conducted  the  first  United 
Presbyterian  missionaries. 

At  the  close  of  February  1841,  Dr.  Wilson  welcomed  the 
first  of  those  bands  of  missionaries  who,  of  whatever  evan- 
gelical Church,  continued  successively,  during  the  next  third 
of  a  century,  to  find  in  Ambrolie  or  "  The  Cliff "  on  Malabar 
Hill  the  most  generous  hospitality,  the  wisest  counsel,  the 
most  efficient  aid.  The  first  of  his  tours  to  bear  fruit  in  the 
establishment  of  a  mission  by  another  Church  than  his  own, 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  his  exploration  of  Goojarat  and  Kathi- 
awar  in  1835.  To  evangelise  that,  the  Synod  of  Ulster, 
daughter  of  the  Scottish  Kirk,  sent  out  two  missionaries. 
The  Eev.  J.  Glasgow  and  J.  Kerr  had  not  been  asked  to 
volunteer  for  the  work,  but  had  been  called  upon  by  the 
Synod's  committee  to  do  it.  This  course,  followed  only  by 
the  autocratic  organisation  of  the  Church  of  Eome,  was 
declared  by  the  very  democratic  Assembly  of  the  Irish 
Presbyterian  Church  "  to  be  a  precedent  in  all  time  to  come." 
It  may  be  regretted  that  the  precedent  has  been  so 
seldom,  if  ever  since,  followed.  Certainly  few  Protestant 
missions  to  people  possessed  of  an  ancient  civilisation,  lite- 
rature, and  faith,  have  been  so  promising,  to  the  present  day, 
as  that  conducted  by  a  succession  of  men  of  the  same  stamp 
as  the  Lawrences  and  Montgomerys  of  Deny,  who,  in  the 
civil  and  military  services,  have  written  their  names  deepest 
on  the  page  of  Indian  history.  The  landing  of  Messrs. 
Glasgow  and  Kerr  raised  in  Government  circles,  as  well  as 
in  native  society,  a  new  question :  Would  they,  should  they, 
be  allowed  to  preach  and  teach  in  native  States  like  Baroda 
and  the  many  vassal  principalities  of  Kathiawar  ? 

The  East  India  Company  had  been  compelled,  by  the 
public  opinion  of  Great  Britain  expressed  through  Par- 


1841.]  THE  FIRST  MISSION  IN  A  NATIVE  STATE.  295 

liament,  to  tolerate  missionaries  in  their  ordinary  terri- 
tory. But  up  to  this  time  there  had  been  no  instance  of  a 
Christian  mission  in  a  native  State.  And  we  may  be  assured 
that,  but  for  the  pioneering  work  arid  influence  of  Dr.  Wilson, 
the  principalities  of  Western  and  Northern  India  would  have 
remained  closed  for  many  a  day.  His  interviews  with  chiefs 
and  people  had  prepared  them  as  well  as  the  British  Govern- 
ment for  Christian  schools  and  preachers,  a  result  to  which 
the  earlier  example  of  a  chaplain  and  the  increasing  number 
of  Christian  officials  had  contributed.  There  was  some  doubt 
as  to  how  Sir  James  E.  Carnac,  the  Governor  of  Bombay,  would 
act.  He  was  an  "old  Indian,"  who,  after  experience  as  a 
sepoy  officer  in  the  Madras  Army,  had  himself  been  Kesi- 
dent  at  Baroda,  and  then  Chairman  of  the  Court  of  Directors. 
One  of  his  first  utterances  as  Governor  had  seemed  hostile  to 
toleration.  But  over  him  also  Dr.  Wilson's  perfect  honesty, 
fearless  character,  and  fine  Christian  tact,  had  had  their  due 
effect.  His  formal  application  to  the  Government  produced 
this  reply,  signed  by  the  friendly  chief  secretary,  Sir.  J.  P. 
Willoughby,  "  The  Honourable  the  Governor  in  Council  will 
offer  no  objection  to  these,  gentlemen  proceeding  to  and 
residing  in  Kathiawar,  so  long  as  they  conduct  themselves 
according  to  the  principles  set  forth  in  your  communication." 
Thus  peacefully  was  established  a  precedent  of  which  Dr. 
Wilson  wrote  to  the  Ulster  Synod:  "The  freely  accorded 
permission  of  the  Government  for  the  establishment  of  your 
mission  in  Kathiawar,  though  nothing  more  than  what  was 
expected  in  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  is  such  as  to 
demand  our  fervent  gratitude.  Though  we  should  not  have 
refused  to  enter  the  province  even  though  the  goodwill  of 
our  rulers  had  not  been  expressed,  the  official  communica- 
tion which  we  have  had  with  the  authorities  enables  us  to  do 
so  with  the  best  understanding,  and  without  any  apprehen- 
sion as  to  further  embarrassments." 


296  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1841. 

The  season  of  the  year  for  tours  was  past,  but  now,  as 
before,  Dr.  Wilson  set  the  prudent  fears  of  his  friends  at 
defiance,  and  resolved  to  spend  the  hot  months  in  helping  his 
Irish  brethren  to  establish  their  mission  at  Rajkote,  Pore- 
bunder,  and  Gogo.  At  all  three  places  Dr.  Wilson  found  that 
his  former  visit  had  borne  fruit  in  the  goodwill  and  intelli- 
gent interest  of  the  native  chiefs  in  the  mission,  and  in  the 
readiness  of  the  leading  inhabitants  to  send  their  boys  to  the 
English  schools.  The  Eajkote  Chief  himself  took  part  in  a 
public  discussion  of  the  comparative  merits  of  Christianity 
and  Hindooism,  propounding  the  question,  "  Why  does  not 
God  Almighty,  who  created  the  world,  annihilate  sin  at  once 
in  the  heart  of  man,  and  thus  instantly  save  him  from  evil  ?" 
This  led  to  a  statement  of  the  principles  of  the  moral  govern- 
ment of  God.  Thus,  as  by  some  weeks'  study  of  the  missionary 
work  in  Bombay,  were  the  new  missionaries  trained.  And  not 
only  they,  for  the  Parsee  convert,  Dhunjeebhoy,  was,  for  the 
first  time,  on  this  tour  the  companion  of  the  teacher  to  whom 
he  was  thenceforth  as  a  son.  Hardly  had  the  mission  been 
established  in  a  house  in  Rajkote  when  Mr.  Kerr  was  carried 
off  by  jungle  fever,  which  prostrated  Dr.  Wilson  at  the  same 
time.  Captain  Le  Grand  Jacob,  afterwards  a  famous  name  in 
Western  India,  and  then  acting  as  Political  Agent,  removed  his 
friend  from  the  fatal  house,  and  in  the  Residency  Dr.  Wilson 
was  tenderly  nursed  by  Dhunjheeboy,  while  deserted  by  some 
of  his  heathen  servants  who  feared  infection.  In  a  letter  to 
Dr.  Brunton,  written  towards  the  close  of  1841  from  the 
sanitarium  of  Mahableshwar,  Dr.  Wilson  thus  refers  to  sorrow 
upon  sorrow,  after  a  pathetic  eulogy  of  Mr.  Kerr : — 

"  Though,  when  death  presented  itself  to  my  view,  and  I  called  to 
mind  my  own  waywardness  under  the  teaching  of  the  Lord,  and  my 
awful  responsibility  as  a  missionary  of  the  Cross  to  this  darkened  and 
unholy  country,  '  my  flesh,'  in  the  first  instance,  '  trembled  for  fear 
of  God's  judgments/  there  was  soon  imparted  to  me,  through  contem- 
plation on  the  glory  and  stability  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  and  the 


1841.]      NEAKLY  FATAL  ILLNESS.       ANNA  BAYNE'S  DEATH.        297 

freeness  with  which  its  blessings  are  bestowed  on  the  humblest  and 
most  unworthy  believer,  a  peace  and  joy  the  remembrance  of  which  is 
calculated  to  excite  most  fervent  and  devout  gratitude.  After  I  had 
become  in  some  degree  convalescent  I  was  called  to  experience  a  most 
unfavourable  relapse.  A  change  of  climate  affording  the  only  hope  of 
my  recovery,  I  was  conveyed,  by  bearers,  from  Rajkote  to  Gogo.  I  re- 
mained about  a  week  at  the  latter  place  before  the  daily  paroxysms  of 
fever  began  to  be  mitigated  ;  but  as  soon  as  I  felt  them  subsiding  I 
sailed  for  Bombay,  which  I  reached  in  safety  on  the  21st  of  September. 

"  Here  it  pleased  the  Lord,  in  his  unerring  wisdom  and  unswerv- 
ing faithfulness,  to  visit  me  with  other  great  and  sore  afflictions. 
During  my  voyage  I  had  fondly  indulged  the  hope  that  my  beloved 
sister  and  endeared  companion  Miss  Anna  Bayne,  would  receive  me 
with  her  usual  affection,  and  attend  to  me  in  my  weakness  with  her 
wonted  care  and  tenderness.  On  my  arrival  at  the  mission-house, 
however,  I  learnt  that  she  was  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Nesbit,  in  the  most 
precarious,  nay  dangerous  state  of  health.  Her  appointed  days  of 
suffering  soon  drew  to  a  close  ;  and  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of 
October  her  ransomed,  and  justified,  and  purified  soul  was  called  to 
enter  into  the  joy  of  its  Lord.  The  triumph  of  her  faith  during  the 
whole  of  her  last  illness  was  most  remarkable,  instructive,  animating, 
and  encouraging.  She  proved  a  conqueror,  and  more  than  a  conqueror, 
through  Him  that  loved  her. 

"  Miss  Bayne,  though  not  officially  connected  with  the  General 
Assembly's  Mission,  was  actually  much  engaged  in  its  service.  To 
comfort  and  assist  me  in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  she  and  her  sister  Hay, 
now  Mrs.  Nesbit,  left  the  land  of  their  fathers.  She  was  the  life  and 
charm  of  my  .household.  To  the  Parsee  converts,  and  Abyssinian  and 
Native  youth,  whom  I  have  received  into  my  family,  she  was  a  tender 
and  affectionate  mother,  as  they  themselves  declare  and  feel,  and  will 
long  remember.  Her  visits  to  the  female  schools  proved  very  encour- 
aging to  the  scholars  ;  and  her  instruction  of  the  classes  in  her  own 
room  was  highly  promising  of  spiritual  good.  She  zealously  sought 
the  improvement  and  conversion  of  the  students  of  English  who  visit 
the  mission-house  ;  and  with  some  of  them  she  regularly  read  and  ex- 
plained the  Scriptures,  while  with  others  she  regularly  corresponded 
when  they  were  removed  from  Bombay.  In  the  Christian  society  in 
which  she  moved  she  was  most  exemplary  and  influential ;  and  both 
noticed  and  respected  for  her  gifts  and  graces.  All  who  enjoyed  her 
friendship  admired  her  kindness,  faithfulness,  and  judiciousness.  It 
was  her  request,  when  she  came  to  India,  that  no  mention  should  be 
made  of  her  endeavours  and  exertions  in  any  public  report  or  letter." 


298  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1841. 

The  indomitable  spirit  of  Dr.  Wilson  is  apparent  in  every 
line  of  this  letter,  and  was  characteristically  illustrated  by  his 
determination,  even  in  the  height  of  his  fever  at  Eajkote,  not 
to  leave  Kathiawar  till  he  had  again  visited  Porebunder,  to 
procure  for  the  General  Assembly's  Institution  a  supply  of 
that  fine  oolitic  sandstone  which  was  long  after  re-discovered 
for  the  building  of  New  Bombay.  At  Mahableshwar  he 
devoted  his  returning  health  to  the  composition  of  The  Parsi 
Religion  and  the  renewed  study  of  the  aboriginal  tribes  of 
the  Western  Ghauts. 

"  I  am  at  present  sojourning  on  the  most  lovely  spot  which  you 
can  imagine.  The  scenery  around  is  the  grandest,  the  most  beautiful, 
and  the  most  sublime,  which.  I  have  yet  witnessed  during  my  earthly 
wanderings,  extensive  though  they  have  been.  The  Mahableshwar  is 
part  of  the  great  Western  Ghats,  and  4700  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea, — a  loftiness  considerably  surpassing  the  highest  of  Caledonia's 
mountains.  The  vegetation  partakes  of  the  magnificence  of  the  tropics, 
but  is  enchanting  to  the  dwellers  in  the  climes  of  the  sun,  as  in  some 
respects  resembling  that  of  our  beloved  native  land.  The  materiel 
of  the  heights  is  of  the  trap  formation,  which  by  its  basaltic  masses  and 
columns,  and  precipitous  scarps,  affords  the  most  wonderful  and  diversi- 
fied specimens  of  nature's  architecture,  and  by  its  valleys  and  ravines, 
of  her  gigantic  excavation.  The  province  of  the  Konkan,  with  its  hills 
and  dales,  and  exhaustless  forests  and  fruitful  fields,  stretches  below. 
At  a  distance  the  ocean  is  seen  as  a  vast  mirror  of  brilliancy,  reflecting 
the  glory  of  the  sky.  The  clouds  baffle  all  description.  Their  various 
and  changing  hues,  and  multifarious  forms  and  motions,  as  they  descend 
to  kiss  the  mountain  brow,  or  remain  above  as  our  fleecy  mantle,  or 
interpose  between  us  and  the  luminary  of  heaven  to  catch  its  rays,  and 
to  reveal  their  coloured  splendour,  fill  the  mind  with  the  most  intense 
delight.  The  whole  display  forces  us  to  praise  God,  and  to  exclaim, 
1  Bless  the  Lord,  0  my  soul.  0  Lord  my  God,  Thou  art  very  great, 
Thou  art  clothed  with  honour  and  majesty.' 

'  If  thus  Thy  glories  gild  the  span 
Of  ruined  earth  and  fallen  man, 
How  glorious  must  the  mansion  be 
Where  Thy  redeemed  shall  dwell  with  thee '  !  " 

"MAHABLESHWAR,    27M  November  1841. — You  have,  I  suppose, 


1841.]  THE  SATARA  RAJA  AND  HIS  DISLOYAL  PREDECESSOR.     299 

often  seen  Satara.  In  my  opinion  it  is  the  most  lovely  station  in  our 
Presidency.  The  valley  of  the  Yena,  with  its  abundant  cultivation, 
and  that  of  the  Krishna,  which  partly  appears,  and  the  mountains  to  the 
west,  and  the  hills  to  the  north  and  south,  presenting,  with  their 
basaltic  masses  and  layers,  and  columns,  and  scarps,  and  towers,  the 
most  interesting  specimens  of  nature's  architecture,  have  a  very  striking 
effect  on  the  eye  of  the  spectator.  The  fort  is  curiously  formed  on  the 
summit  of  one  of  the  highest  elevations,  and  it  is  associated  with  all  the 
interest  and  romance  of  Marathee  history.  The  native  town  is  spacious, 
busy,  and  regular,  to  a  degree  seldom  seen  in  this  country.  The  camp 
is  very  agreeably  situated ;  and  the  Eesidency  has  a  beautiful 
neighbourhood. 

"  We  were  introduced  by  Colonel  Ovans  to  the  Kaja.  His  High- 
ness was  encamped,  with  an  enormous  suite,  outside  the  town,  having 
just  arrived  from  a  pedestrian  journey  to  the  shrine  of  Khandoba  at 
Jejuri.  When  1  intimated  to  him  the  fruitlessness  of  his  pilgrimage  by 
saying  Kliandobd  lakdchyd  bokdndin  basto,  '  Khandoba  seizes  folks  by 
the  throat/  he  laughed  most  heartily  ;  but  I  have  reason  to  believe  that 
he  is  really  very  superstitious.  He  has  no  appearance  of  the  dissipation 
with  which  his  enemies  have  charged  him  ;  and  he  is  noted  by  the 
Europeans  at  present  at  Sdtara  for  his  benevolence  and  good  nature. 
Of  his  own  accord  he  has  abolished  Suttee  and  the  sale  of  children.  He 
has  lightened  the  burdens  of  his  cultivators,  and  established  for  the 
benefit  of  his  subjects  an  extensive  hospital,  all  the  expense  of  which — 
including  Rs.  500  monthly  to  Dr.  Erskine  for  supervision — he  himself 
discharges.  He  has  increased  the  efficiency  of  the  school  founded  by 
his  brother  the  ex-Raja,  and  it  is  now,  as  it  should  be,  as  much  English 
as  it  is  Oriental.  He  has  greatly  extended  the  roads  throughout  the 
country,  and  he  is  building  two  excellent  bridges,  which  I  went  to  see, 
over  the  Yena  and  the  Krishnd.  I  trust  that  he  will  be  permitted  to 
continue  to  occupy  the  throne,  for  of  the  guilt  of  his  brother,  for  which 
he  has  been  sent  to  Benares,  there  ought  to  be  no  doubt.  You  remem- 
ber what  Captain  G.  told  us  at  Goa,  about  the  horses  on  which  the 
Capitao  General  and  his  suite  were  riding  having  been  presented  to  them 
by  the  Satara  State,  when  the  Raja  asked  the  co-operation  of  the 
Portuguese  in  turning  the  English  out  of  the  country.  I  have  seen  the 
letters  of  Don  Manuel  de  Portugal  e  Castro,  the  former  Governor  of 
Goa,  to  the  Raja,  acknowledging  lus  letters,  and  identified  them  by  the 
signature,  seal,  and  other  marks.  I  have  also  seen  the  communications 
of  the  ex-Raja  of  Nagpore,  and  in  a  similar  way  identified  them.  Now, 
when  it  is  kept  in  mind  that  Pratap  Singh  was  bound  over  by  the 


300  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  t1842- 

treaty — on  a  breach  of  which  his  possessions  were  to  be  forfeited — to 
abstain  from  all  correspondence  with  the  different  chieftains  and  States 
of  India  not  sanctioned  by  our  Government,  it  must  be  seen  that  he 
has  justly  been  deposed.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  so  many 
benevolent  and  excellent  men  in  England  have  espoused  his  cause,  and 
seem  determined  to  make  it  the  subject  of  senatorial  and  popular 
agitation,  instead  of  more  worthy  themes  connected  with  the  welfare 
and  amelioration  of  this  great  country.  In  the  number  of  the  Asiatic 
Journal  of  August  last  you  will  see  a  very  full  report  of  the  debates 
which  have  already  taken  place  on  the  subject  before  the  Court  of  Pro- 
prietors of  India  stock.  Sir  R.  Campbell  quotes  a  note  which  I  sent  to 
Major  Jervis  about  the  Goa  affair  ;  and  Mr.  George  Thompson  makes 
such  an  absurd  and  improper  comment  upon  it,  that,  with  my  estimate 
of  his  Christian  worth,  I  cannot  conceive  that  he  had  heard  the  little 
document  read,  which  he  entirely  perverts.  If  he  wishes  to  establish 
for  himself  the  character  of  a  friendly  advocate  of  the  claims  of  India, 
he  must  speak  from  a  perfect  knowledge  of  facts,  and  not  from  vague 
impressions.  He  seems  to  insinuate  blame  against  me  for  presuming  to 
form  any  judgment  in  the  case  at  all ;  but  he  ought  to  have  observed 
that  I  was  brought  forward  only  as  a  witness,  and  to  have  remembered 
that  if  missionaries  do  not  give  notice  of  any  treasonable  movements 
which  they  may  happen  to  observe,  they  are  altogether  unworthy  of 
that  protection  which  is  extended  to  them  by  the  British  Government, 
which,  with  all  its  faults,  is  next  to  the  offer  of  the  Gospel  itself— 
which  it  facilitates — the  greatest  blessing  ever  conferred  on  India.  I 
have  been  extremely  sorry  to  observe  several  speakers  impeaching  the 
motives  and  feelings  of  the  commissioners  sent  to  Satara  to  aid  the 
Bombay  Government  in  its  investigations.  Colonel  Ovans  stood  in  the 
most  disinterested  position  which  can  be  imagined  ;  and  Mr.  Willough- 
by's  benevolence,  so  well  evinced  by  his  most  able  and  persevering 
efforts  to  abolish  infanticide  in  Kathiawar,  not  second  to  those  of  Walker 
himself,  formed  a  good  guarantee  that  the  claims  of  mercy  would  be 
consulted  by  him  as  well  as  those  of  justice." 

On  his  return  to  Bombay  at  the  end  of  January  1842,  he 
writes : — "  I  had  a  most  cordial  reception,  not  only  from  my 
Christian  friends  but  from  great  numbers  of  the  natives. 
The  rush  of  the  latter  to  bid  me  welcome,  and  their  sincere 
greetings  on  my  recovery  and  restoration  I  am  disposed  to 
consider  as  an  indication  that  they  are  ready  to  avail  them- 


1842.]  PLANS  A  TOUR  IN  ARABIA  AND  SYRIA.  301 

selves  of  such  ministrations  as  I  may  be  able  to  render." 
He  at  once  announced  a  new  course  of  lectures  on  the  Parsee 
religion,  to  prepare  the  community  for  the  appearance  of  his 
book.  Dr.  Murray  Mitchell  had  vigorously  conducted  the 
Bombay  Mission  during  his  absence,  a  fact  which  he  grate- 
fully reports  to  Dr.  Brunton.  On  the  session  of  1842  Dr. 
Wilson  entered  with  such  vigour  that  he  wrote: — "I  have 
seldom  been  able  to  do  more  in  the  mission  than  during  the 
last  three  months."  But  the  season  proved  to  be  one  of 
those  periodical  years  of  cholera  which  was  "  most  extensive 
and  fearful  in  its  ravages."  One  of  the  ladies  at  the  head  of 
the  female  schools  was  struck  down  by  the  pestilence ;  the 
other,  the  head  of  the  boarding-school,  soon  followed  her,  and 
that  when  the  loss  of  Anna  Bayne  was  still  fresh. 

Dr.  Hugh  Miller  and  others  so  pressed  on  Dr.  Wilson 
the  duty  of  taking  furlough  after  thirteen  years  of  toil,  that 
he  agreed  to  make  such  arrangements  "  as  will  permit  me,  if 
I  am  preserved,  to  pay  my  promised  visit  to  the  land  of  my 
fathers."  To  Dr.  Brunton  he  wrote  thus  on  the  23d  May,  as 
if  tempted  to  a  prudent  regard  for  his  health  and  rest  only 
by  the  prospect  of  a  far  more  extended  totir,  through  Syria 
and  Eastern  Europe,  than  he  had  yet  made  in  India : — "  I 
begin  already  to  long  to  have  the  privilege  of  conferring  with 
you  and  the  committee  about  our  wants  and  wishes  in  this 
place,  and  pleading  with  the  public  on  behalf  of  this  great 
country.  I  wish,  however,  to  look  at  the  Muhammadan 
delusion  and  the  Jewish  unbelief  of  Asia  near  the  centre  of 
their  influence  as  I  proceed  to  the  West ;  and  I  know  that 
you  will  not  consider  my  movements  as  aberrations  in  a  mis- 
sionary point  of  view,  even  though  they  should  prove  some- 
what extended  and  circuitous."  At  the  same  time  he  wrote 
to  Mr.  Archibald  Bonar,  who  was  treasurer  of  the  General 
Assembly's  Jews'  Committee  :  "  Unless  some  work  be  pro- 
vided for  me  on  the  way,  I  shall  have  a  mighty  struggle 


302  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSOX.  [1842. 

indeed  before  I  can  leave  this  great  country."  He  was  not  to 
leave  until  enabled  by  Captain,  now  Sir  W.  Hill,  to  announce 
the  supply  of  funds  for  another  Scottish  Mission  in  Nagpore, 
now  the  capital  of  the  Central  Provinces,  and  to  plan  the 
organisation  of  that  mission  which  was  established  by  Mr. 
Stephen  Hislop  a  few  years  after.  And  he  was  summoned, 
in  the  last  busy  weeks  of  his  preparation  for  his  departure, 
to  the  counsels  of  the  Bombay  Government  in  the  matter  of 
Lord  Ellenborough  and  the  proclamation  regarding  the  gates 
of  Somnath.  He  had  not  long  before  visited  the  spot.  He 
knew  its  history  better  than  any  man  in  India;  he  understood, 
because  he  loved,  the  natives,  Hindoo  and  Muhammadan ;  he 
held  familiar  intercourse  with  the  highest  English  officials. 
And,  in  the  Satara  case,  he  had  just  proved  that  his  judgment 
on  political  questions  was  as  cautious  as  it  was  guided  by  the 
principles  of  righteousness  in  every  form. 

When,  early  in  the  year  1841,  Sir  James  Eivett  Carnnc 
ceased  to  be  Governor  of  Bombay,  the  official  nominated  as 
his  successor  was  Sir  William  Hay  Macnaghten.  Macnaghten 
was  the  Calcutta  Secretary,  whom  Lord  Auckland  and  Lord 
Broughton  had  found  to  be  the  most  enthusiastic  advocate  of 
the  evil  policy  of  interference  in  Afghanistan.  Blameless  in 
life,  accomplished  as  an  Oriental  scholar,  for  some  time  a 
judge  of  high  repute  from  his  knowledge  of  the  natives,  and 
a  hard-working  secretary,  Macnaghten  was  sent  to  Cabul  as 
the  envoy  to  carry  into  execution  the  mad  scheme  he  had 
encouraged.  During  the  seven  ill-fated  weeks  when  his 
prepossessions  cheated  him,  though  not  those  around  him, 
into  the  belief  that  that  policy  had  succeeded,  he  was 
rewarded  by  the  Governorship  of  Bombay,  and  he  was  arranging 
to  leave  Cabul  for  Western  India  when  the  catastrophe  came. 
Sending  for  the  three  officers  whom  he  always  consulted, 
though  he  too  often  refused  to  be  guided  by  them,  he 
brusquely  directed  them  to  accompany  him  to  a  conference 


1842.]    MACNAGHTEN'S  ASSASSINATION.     SIR  o.  ARTHUR.     303 

with  the  hostile  Akbar  Khan,  the  favourite  son  of  the  sup- 
planted ruler  Dost  Muhammad.  Colin  Mackenzie,  bravest 
of  all  the  heroes  of  that  time,  but  the  only  one  of  them  who, 
though  a  Lieutenant-General  and  C.B.,  still  remains  un- 
honoured  by  the  country  he  has  served  so  long  and  so  well, 
remonstrated  that  it  was  a  plot.  "  Trust  me  for  that,"  said  the 
envoy,  who  had  hardly  begun  to  talk  when  Akbar  Khan  him- 
self shot  him  with  one  of  the  pistols  for  which  the  assas- 
sin had  just  thanked  him  ;  Trevor  also  was  cut  down ;  and 
Mackenzie  and  the  third  officer,  now  Sir  George  Lawrence, 
escaped  alive  with  difficulty,  past  a  line  of  excited  fanatics. 

A  new  Governor  had  to  be  selected,  and  he  proved  to  be 
the  amiable  and  useful  Sir  George  Arthur,  Bart.,  who  was 
thus  rewarded  for  services  in  the  Colonies.  As  his  private 
secretary  the  new  ruler  appointed  a  young  civilian,  who, 
eight  years  before,  in  1834,  had  been  admitted  to  Dr. 
Wilson's  friendship  on  his  presenting  a  letter  of  intro- 
duction to  the  missionary  at  Ambrolie.  Henry  Bartle 
Edward  Frere  had  begun  to  redeem,  by  his  ability  and 
industry  in  the  Eevenue  Department,  the  promise  which 
he  gave  at  Haileybury.  Over  him,  as  over  so  many  young 
officers  in  both  services,  Dr.  Wilson  exercised  a  power- 
ful influence,  and  hence  few  public  men  in  high  position 
have  so  fairly  represented  the  nature  and  the  importance  of 
missionary  work  in  India  and  Africa  as  he.  In  his  case  the 
intimacy  became  friendship  honourable  to  both.  When  Sir 
Bartle  Frere  himself  rose  to  be  Governor,  and  with  all  the 
state  of  an  Indian  proconsul  would  sometimes  call  on  the 
simple  scholar  to  introduce  some  native  prince  and  show 
the  mission  college,  he  used  to  recall  the  day  when,  as  a  shy 
youth,  he  first  ascended  the  Ambrolie  stair  to  present  his 
letter  to  one  who  was  even  then  beginning  to  be  regarded 
with  reverence. 

The  unhappy  Lord  Auckland   had  given  place  to  Lord 


304 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSOX. 


[1842. 


Ellenborough,  as  the  Governor-General  sent  out  to  avenge 
and  retrieve  the  disasters  of  1838-40.  Lord  Ellenborough, 
in  the  delirium  of  a  heated  and  an  equally  unprincipled 
policy,  had  with  the  one  hand  directed  Generals  Pollock 
and  Nott  to  "  retire "  without  rescuing  the  noble  men 
and  women  who  were  in  captivity,  and  with  the  other  to 
bring  back  the  gates  of  the  Hindoo  temple  of  Somnath, 
which  adorned  Muhammad's  tomb  at  Ghuznee,  that  he  might 
declare,  "  the  insult  of  eight  hundred  years  is  at  last  avenged.' 
On  the  5th  October  the  Commander-in-Chief,  Sir  Jasper 
Nicholls,  saw  the  first  draft  of  the  precious  document  known 
as  "  The  Proclamation  of  the  Gates,"  and  freely  criticised  it. 
Sir  John  Kaye,  in  his  best  book,  The  History  of  the  War  in 
Afghanistan,  states  that  it  was  published  in  its  English 
form  on  the  16th  November.  But  it  seems  to  have  been  first 
referred  to  the  subordinate  Governments  for  opinion,  for  it 
had  not  appeared  in  Bombay  on  the  2d  December,  as  this 
note  shows : — 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  WILSON. — When  you  were  in  Kattywar  did  you 
visit  the  temple  of  Somnath  Puttun,  the  gates  of  which  are  about  to  be 
restored  by  Lord  Ellenborough,  and  in  this  case  can  you  afford  me  any 
information  on  the  subject  of  its  present  condition,  and  how  it  is 
managed  ?  The  notification  that  is  about  to  be  published  regarding  the 
gates  of  this  pagan  temple  will  astonish  the  whole  Christian  world. — 
Yours  very  sincerely,  J.  WILLOUGHBY. 

"  2d  December  1842." 

On  the  next  day  Dr.  Wilson  was  officially  asked  for  in- 
formation to  enable  the  Bombay  Government  to  criticise  it. 
The  temple  from  which  the  so-called  gates  had  been  taken 
and  to  which  they  were  to  be  restored,  was  in  their  juris- 
diction. In  spite  of  the  two  months  that  had  passed,  and 
of  all  the  remonstrances  and  criticisms  of  those  around  him, 
it  is  evident  that  Lord  Ellenborough  knew  nothing  accu- 
rately about  the  temple,  the  gates,  and  their  history.  His 
ignorance  was  as  profound  as  his  conduct  was  pernicious. 


1842.]       PRIVATE  CORRESPONDENCE  ON  SOMNATH  GATES.         305' 

Sir  Bartle  Frere  thus  confidentially  wrote  to  Dr.  Wilson.  His 
reply  was  sent  through  Sir  J.  P.  Willoughby,  as  chief  secre- 
tary to  Government,  and  was  forwarded  by  Sir  George  Arthur, 
the  Governor,  to  Lord  Ellenborough.  Like  Carey  when 
called  on  to  translate  the  order  suppressing  Suttee,  Dr.  Wilson 
spent  the  greater  part  of  a  Sunday  in  meeting  this  urgent 
call  in  the  service  of  religion  and  humanity.  The  text  is 
from  his  draft  only. 

"  PARELL,  3d  December  1842. — DEAR  SIR. — You  are  of  course  aware 
that  among  the  trophies  which  have  been  brought  away  from  Afghanistan 
by  the  British  army  are  the  i  Somnath  Gates '  of  Sultan  Mahmoud's 
tomb  at  Guzni  ;  and  you  have  probably  heard  that  it  is  the  intention 
of  the  Governor- General  that,  as  a  memorial  of  the  triumph  of  our 
arms,  they  shall  be  restored  to  the  spot  whence  they  were  taken  by 
the  Guzni  vide  Sultan  800  years  ago.  As  the  Governor  understands 
that,  in  the  course  of  your  late  tour  through  Kattywar,  you  visited  the 
site  of  Somnath  »Puttun,  and  made  particular  inquiries  regarding  the 
history  and  antiquities  of  the  place,  he  will  feel  much  obliged  if  you 
will  let  him  know,  for  the  information  of  the  Governor-General,  in 
what  state  you  found  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  city.  How  many 
temples,  and  of  what  kind,  are  still  in  existence — which  of  them  is  the 
temple  whence  the  gates  are  said  to  have  been  taken,  and  on  what  kind 
of  evidence  the  conclusion  of  its  identity  rests — who  has  charge  of  or 
control  over  it — what  is  its  condition — who  are  the  '  Poojarees,'  or 
persons  who  perform  the  usual  ceremonies  of  worship,  etc. — and  of 
which  castes  and  sects  the  worshippers  are  generally  composed  ?  If  your 
inquiries  established  any  other  facts  connected  with  the  history  or 
present  state  of  '  Somnath  Puttun/  which  you  think  likely  to  be  of 
interest  to  the  Governor,  he  desires  me  to  say  he  will  feel  much 
obliged  by  your  communicating  them. — Believe  me,  dear  Sir,  ever 
faithfully  yours,  H.  B.  E.  FRERE." 

DR.  WILSON  ON  THE  SOMNATH  GATES. 

"  5tk  December  1842. — MY  DEAR  SIR. — I  have  much  pleasure  in. 
replying  to  your  letter  of  the  3d  instant ;  and  I  beg  you  to  assure  the 
honourable  the  Governor,  that  any  reference  of  a  similar  character 
will  at  any  time  meet  with  my  promptest  attention.  It  was  in  the 
year  1835  that  I  repaired  to  Puttun  Somnath  with  a  view  to  an 
investigation  of  its  antiquities  and  traditions  ;  and  since  that  time  I 

X 


306  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1842. 


have  had  many  opportunities  of  comparing  the  result  of  my  observations 
and  inquiries  with  the  notices  which  I  have  observed  in  the  Muham- 
madan  histories,  and  the  narratives  of  other  visitors.  Mr.  "Westergaard, 
a  learned  Dane,  who  has  been  sent  to  this  country  on  a  literary  mission 
under  the  auspices  of  his  Sovereign,  and  who  is  at  present  staying  under 
my  roof,  visited  the  place  a  few  months  ago  ;  and  I  learn  from  his 
account  that  matters  connected  with  the  temples  there  remain  nearly 
in  the  same  state  in  which  they  were  at  the  time  of  my  visit. 

"  The  town  of  Puttun  is  now  in  a  condition  very  different  from  that 
in  which  it  was  when  it  was  assaulted  by  Muhammad  of  Ghuzni.  As 
mentioned  by  Sir  John  Malcolm,  it  is  described  by  Persian  historians 
*  as  being  a  lofty  castle,'  *  on  a  narrow  peninsula,  with  its  three  sides 
defended  by  the  sea/  and  it  was  famous  as  a  stronghold  of  power  as 
well  as  the  seat  of  a  celebrated  shrine.  The  difficulties  encountered  by 
Muhammad  in  its  attack  clearly  prove  that  this  was  the  case.  At  pre- 
sent, however,  there  is  nothing  connected  with  it  deserving  the  name  of 
a  fortification,  though  part  of  the  town,  which  is  very  inconsiderable  in 
point  of  size,  is  enclosed  within  a  wall.  Verawul,  in  its  neighbourhood, 
is  a  port  where  mercantile  transactions  are  pretty  extensive,  and  where  a 
body  of  respectable  Banyas  and  Jain  merchants  are  to  be  found. 

"There  are  only  two  temples  belonging  to  the  Hindoos  of  any 
consequence  at  Somnath.  One  of  these  is  that  built  some  fifty  years 
ago  by  Alya  Bai,  the  famous  Kdnee  of  the  Holkar  family,  of  whom 
such  interesting  accounts  are  published  in  Sir  John  Malcolm's  History 
of  Central  India.  The  other  is  that  which  is  declared  by  all  the 
natives  of  the  place  to  have  been  the  special  object  of  the  anti-poly- 
theistic ire  of  Muhammad.  The  latter  is  now  utterly  forsaken  by  the 
natives  as  a  place  of  worship.  There  was  much  filth  accumulated  in  it 
when  I  saw  it.  It  was  traversed  by  the  village  swine,  the  common 
scavengers  of  India,  which  were  attracted  to  it  by  its  being  occasionally 
a  place  of  resort  by  the  natives  after  their  morning  meal.  The  greater 
part  of  the  building,  which  is  of  oolite  sandstone,  is  still  standing  ;  and 
the  remains  of  its  external  ornaments,  though  much  defaced  by  the 
violence  of  the  Mussulmans,  bear  witness  to  a  respectable  state  of 
advancement  in  the  art  of  sculpture  at  the  time  that  they  were  formed. 
The  name  of  the  temple,  as  well  as  its  construction,  indicates  its  connec- 
tion with  the  god  Shiva.  The  idol  destroyed  by  Muhammad  is  declared 
by  the  natives  to  have  been  a  linga,  and  of  this  fact  there  can  be  no 
doubt  entertained  by  any  person  who  attends  to  the  form  of  the  temple. 
The  principal  notices  of  the  destruction  of  the  idol  taken  by  the 
Mussulman  historians  are  the  following  : — '  The  temple  in  which  the 


1842.]  CONFIDENTIAL  LETTER  ON  SOMNATH  GATES.  30  7 

idol  of  Somnath  stood/  says  the  Rauzat-as-Safa,  l  was  of  considerable 
extent,  both  in  length  and  breadth,  and  the  roof  was  supported  by 
fifty-six  pillars  in  rows.  The  idol  was  of  polished  stone  ;  its  height 
was  about  five  cubits,  and  its  thickness  in  proportion  :  two  cubits  were 
below  ground.  Muhammad  having  entered  the  temple  broke  the  stone 
Somnath  with  a  heavy  mace  ;  some  of  the  fragments  he  ordered  to  be 
conveyed  to  Ghuzni,  and  they  were  placed  at  the  threshold  of  the  old 
mosque.'  In  the  Tabkat-Akbari,  a  history  of  the  Emperor  Akbar,  we 
have  the  following  passage  agreeing  on  the  point  referred  to  with  that 
now  quoted  : — 

'  Muhammad,'  says  Ferishta,  who  is  evidently  guilty  of  gross  exaggeration 
in  his  general  account  of  Somnath,  '  entered  Somnath  accompanied  by  his  sons, 
and  a  few  of  his  nobles  and  principal  attendants.  On  approaching  the  temple 
he  saw  a  superb  edifice  built  of  hewn  stone.  Its  lofty  roof  was  supported  by 
fifty-six  pillars,  curiously  carved  and  set  with  precious  stones.  In  the  centre 
of  the  hall  was  Somnath,  a  stone  idol  five  yards  in  height,  two  of  which  were 
sunk  in  the  ground.  The  king,  approaching  the  image,  struck  off  its  nose. 
He  ordered  two  pieces  of  the  idol  to  be  broken  off  and  sent  to  Ghuzni,  that 
one  might  be  thrown  at  the  threshold  of  the  public  mosque,  and  the  other  at 
the  court  door  of  his  -own  palace.  These  identical  fragments  are  to  this  day 
(now  600  years  ago)  to  be  seen  at  Ghuzni.  Two  more  fragments  were  reserved 
to  be  sent  to  Mecca  and  Medina.' 

"  In  the  second  of  these  extracts  it  is  declared  that  the  temple 
was  '  levelled  with  the  ground.'  The  Rauzat-as-Safa,  the  more 
respectable  authority,  however,  does  not  notice  this  circumstance. 
The  unanimous  testimony  of  the  natives  of  Somnath,  so  far  as  I  could 
read  it,  is  in  favour  of  the  representations  of  those  who  say  that 
Muhammad  contented  himself  with  the  destruction  of  the  idol  and  the 
partial  injury  of  the  shrine. 

"  Sir  John  Malcolm,  I  may  here  mention,  attributes  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  temple  to  Sultan  Mahmoud  Begoda,  who  came  to  the 
throne  of  Goojarat  in  the  year  877  of  the  Hijra.  '  He  marched/ 
he  says,  '  against  Somnath,  razed  the  temple  to  the  ground,  and 
with  the  bigoted  zeal  of  a  Muhammadan  conqueror,  built  a  'mosque 
on  the  spot  where  it  stood.'  He  adds,  '  The  mosque  has  fallen  into 
ruin,  and  Alya  Bai,  the  widow  of  a  prince  of  the  Maratha  family  of 
Holkar,  has  lately  erected  a  new  temple  on  the  exact  spot  where  it 
stood.'  This  last  statement  appears  to  me  incredible,  for  Somnath  has 
remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Mussulmans  ever  since  the  days  of 
Mahmoud  Begoda,  and  for  long  they  were  so  much  addicted  to  obstruct 
the  Hindoos  in  their  worship  that  the  British  Government  begged  on 
their  behalf  the  freedom  of  pilgrimage  from  the  Joonagurh  State,  to 
which  the  town  of  Somnath  belongs.  The  natives  of  Somnath,  so  far 


308 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1842. 


as  I  could  learn,  universally  declare  that  the  site  of  Alya  Bai's 
temple  is  not  that  of  the  ancient  temple,  and  that  the  temple  to  which 
I  have  already  alluded  as  forsaken  is  the  ancient  temple.  In  a  case  of 
this  kind  I  am  disposed  to  lay  considerable  stress  on  the  local  tradi- 
tion. Alya  Bai's  misguided  zeal  for  Hindooism  could  find  many  spots 
near  the  ancient  Somnath  where  it  could  find  its  expression  without  its 
selecting  the  ruins  of  a  mosque.  The  whole  neighbourhood,  indeed, 
is  sacred,  according  to  the  Hindoo  mythology.  It  is  the  reputed  field 
of  one  of  the  most  celebrated  engagements  mentioned  in  the  Mahab- 
harata.  The  god  Krishna,  according  to  the  Bhagawata,  received  his 
mortal  wound  at  a  spot  not  very  far  distant  from  its  enclosure. 

"  In  the  course  of  my  reading  I  have  found  no  notice  in  any  of 
the  Mussulman  histories  of  '  gates  '  having  been  taken  from  the  temple 
of  Somnath.  If  such  articles  formed  part  of  the  trophies  of  Muhammad 
of  Ghuzni,  it  is  probable  that  they  were  connected  with  the  ancient 
fort  of  the  town,  for  it  is  not  likely  that  the  Mussulmans  would  devote 
an  article  contaminated  by  idolatry  to  an  ornamental  purpose  connected 
with  either  their  mosques  or  tombs,  though  they  might  dispose  of 
them  for  any  purpose  of  degradation  that  might  occur  to  them.  The 
author  of  the  Rauzat-as-Safa,  as  we  have  seen,  says  expressly  that  it 
was  some  '  fragments '  of  the  idol  which  were  ordered  to  be  sent  to 
Ghuzni,  and  that  '  they  were  placed  at  the  threshold  of  the  great 
mosque.'  The  author  of  the  Tabkat-Akbari  speaks  of  one  '  fragment ' 
of  stone  having  been  sent  to  Ghuzni, l  where  it  was  laid  at  the  threshold 
of  the  principal  mosque,  and  was  there  many  years.'  With  these 
testimonies  that  of  Ferishta  agrees.  The  story  of  the  gates  has  originated, 
it  appears  to  me,  with  some  of  our  late  travellers ;  perhaps  with  erroneous 
information  given  to  Mr.  Elphinstone. 

"  The  ancient  temple  of  Somnath  was  devoted  to  Shiva.  The 
distinctive  followers  of  this  god  in  Kathiawar  are  now  few  and  uninflu- 
ential.  There  are  no  Brahmans  in  charge  of  the  old  temple  to  which 
I  have  referred.  That  of  Alya  Bai  is  under  the  care  of  the  Sompada 
Brahmans,  one  of  the  smallest  of  the  eighty-four  sects  into  which  the 
Goojarat  Brahmanhood  is  divided,  and  who  are  seldom  met  with  else- 
where than  at  Somnath,  from  which  they  derive  their  name.  The 
great  body  of  the  pure  Hindoos  in  the  province  are  now  Vaishnavas. 
It  is  the  legends  relative  to  Krishna,  who  is  one  of  the  incarnations  of 
Vishnoo,  that  principally  attract  the  Hindoo  pilgrims  to  Somnath,  and 
neither  the  celebrity  nor  supposed  sanctity  of  the  old  or  the  new  temple. 
The  Sompada  Brahmans  exist  principally  by  the  practice  of  mendicity. 
They  are  the  Poojarees  of  the  temple. 


1842.]  CONFIDENTIAL  LETTER  ON  SOMNATH  GATES.  309 

"  Somnath,  as  I  have  already  hinted,  belongs  to  the  Mussulman 
State  of  Joonagurh.  That  State  has  claims  for  zortalabi,  or  black  mail, 
recognised  by  us,  upon  most  of  the  petty  States  of  the  peninsula.  It  is 
at  present  particularly  well  affected  to  the  British  Government,  as  I  saw 
last  year  when  residing  in  Kathiawar,  but  it  is  jealous  of  the  Gaikwar 
and  some  of  the  British  and  Baroda  Hindoo  tributaries.  I  question  if 
it  will  cordially  welcome  the  gates  should  they  ever  enter  its  bound- 
aries. The  Mussulmans  throughout  India  will,  I  believe,  be  not  a 
little  hurt  in  their  feelings  by  their  public  exhibition  on  their  progress, 
and  they,  of  all  classes  of  the  community,  require  to  have  their  feelings 
most  conciliated  on  this  occasion. 

"  On  reflecting  on  the  present  circumstances  of  Somnath,  I  see  not 
how  the  gates  can  be  conveniently  disposed  of,  even  should  they  reach 
Somnath,  unless  it  be  by  planting  them  in  some  triumphal  arch  or 
monument  entirely  disconnected  with  any  of  the  sacred  edifices  of  the 
Hindoos.  The  Hindoos,  so  far  as  they  would  make  any  interpretation 
of  their  being  presented  to  any  of  their  temples,  would  conclude  that 
the  gift  is  the  voluntary  homage  of  the  British  Government  to  their 
religion,  and  a  token  of  our  espousal  of  their  cause  against  the  Mussul- 
mans, their  former  foes.  This  cannot  be  the  design  of  the  Right  Hon- 
ourable the  Governor-General.  His  grand  object  is  to  consecrate  the 
spolia  opima  to  the  commemoration  of  British  and  Indian  valour.  From 
what  I  have  observed  of  the  Natives  during  the  most  intimate  inter- 
course with  them  for  fourteen  years,  I  am  led  to  the  opinion  that  his 
Lordship's  desires  of  benefit  from  the  disposal  of  the  gates  can  be  accom- 
plished only  by  their  being  kept  entirely  distinct  from  the  temples. 
From  his  Lordship's  late  exemplary  recognition  of  divine  Providence  in 
connection  with  our  successes  in  Afghanistan  and  the  preservation  of 
our  troops,  and  the  bounty  of  God  toward  our  native  subjects  in 
general,  I  am  sure  that  his  Lordship  would  revolt  from  inadvertently 
originating  any  measure  which  would  appear  to  him  to  be  in  any  way 
derogatory  to  our  holy  Faith,  or  adverse  to  that  gradual  divorcement 
from  superstitious  observances  which  is  now  becoming  apparent  through- 
out the  bounds  of  our  Eastern  Empire. 

"  I  respectfully  beg  you  to  ask  the  Governor  to  pardon  my  ventur- 
ing on  a  single  allusion  extending  beyond  the  inquiries  of  your  letter. 
It  proceeds  from  one  who  has  no  common  desire  to  witness  the  continu- 
ance of  the  distinguished  prosperity  of  my  Lord  Ellenborough's  admini- 
stration— the  blessing  of  peace  which,  under  God,  his  Lordship  has 
been  so  instrumental  in  earning  for  us,  and  his  expressed  determination 
nobly  to  consecrate  the  principal  resources  of  India  to  its  own  improve- 
ment and  social  and  moral  elevation." 


310  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1842. 

So  early  as  October,  two  months  before  this,  Lord 
Ellenborough  had  sent  his  proclamation  privately  to  the 
Queen,  in  a  letter  filled  With  historical  mistakes  and  baseless 
native  gossip,  which  thus  closed :  "  The  progress  of  the  gates 
from  Ferozepore  to  Somnath  will  be  one  great  national 
triumph,  and  their  restoration  will  endear  the  Government  to 
the  whole  people."  Two  months  after,  on  the  19th  February 
1843,  he  announced  to  her  Majesty,  in  similarly  bombastic 
phrases,  the  arrival  of  the  gates  at  Delhi  under  the  escort  of 
five  hundred  Sikh  troopers.  "All,"  he  wrote,  "consider  the 
restoration  of  the  gates  to  be  a  national  not  a  religious 
triumph."  His  Excellency  had  been  taught  by  remonstrances 
far  less  courteous  than  Dr.  Wilson's,  to  abandon  the  religious 
argument  which  he  had  from  the  first  paraded;  while  at 
home  the  storm  was  rising,  and  all  the  -efforts  of  his  personal 
friend,  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  could  not  quell  it.  To  the 
Governor -General  himself  the  Duke  could  not  write  more 
strongly  than  this  :  "  I  say  nothing  of  the  Gates  of  Somnath, 
which  is,  I  think,  made  a  cheval  de  lataille" 

The  gates  never  got  farther  than  the  Agra  arsenal,  where 
they  stand  to  point  the  sneer  against  Lord  Ellenborough. 
Mr.  Yernon  Smith,  three  months  after,  faintly  expressed  public 
opinion  in  Europe,  when  he  moved  in  the  House  of  Commons 
a  resolution  condemning  the  conduct  of  the  Governor-General 
in  this  matter  as  "unwise,  indecorous,  and  reprehensible." 
The  party  of  the  accused,  then  in  power,  procured  the  rejection 
of  the  motion ;  but  in  spite  of  all  the  great  Duke's  influence, 
that  proclamation  soon  after  procured  its  author's  recall.1 
We  cannot  altogether  regret  an  act  which  was  the  occasion 
of  Macaulay's  most  famous  Philippic;  his  greatest,  at  once 
as  a  piece  of  eloquence  and  a  vindication  of  the  principles  of 
religious  liberty  applied  to  India. 

1  For  a  fuller  statement  of  the  merits  of  the  case  see  sketch  of  Lord 
Ellenborough  in  the  new  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia,  Britannica. 


CHAPTER  X. 

1836-1842. 
ORIENTAL  SCHOLARSHIP  AND  SCHOLARS. 

Sir  W.  Jones  founds  the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society — Sir  James  Mackintosh  and 
the  Bombay  Literary  Society — The  Early  Orientalists  of  Western  India — Dr. 
Wilson's  first  Address  as  President — Maps  out  the  field  of  Asiatic  Research — 
Subordinates  his  Scholarly  to  his  directly  Missionary  Pursuits — A  High 
Missionary  Ideal — Member  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society — The  first  to  attempt 
Deciphering  of  the  Fourteen  Edicts  of  Asoka — Colonel  James  Tod  at  Girnar 
— James  Prinsep's  Enthusiasm — Dr.  Mill — Dr.  Wilson's  Letter  to  Captain 
Lang  acknowledging  the  facsimiles — Prinsep's  tribute  to  Dr.  Wilson — Girnar 
as  it  is — The  Second  and  Thirteenth  Edicts,  and  the  early  Successors  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great — Letter  from  Prinsep  to  Dr.  Wilson — Asoka  the  Humane — 
Correspondence  with  Burnouf,  Theodore  Pavie,  Tumour,  Westergaard,  and  Sir 
J.  Emerson  Tennent — Government  Connection  with  Idolatry — Dr.  Wilson 
consulted  by  Chief-Justice  on  Parsee  Law  and  Customs — Congratulatory  Letters 
on  "  The  Parsi  Religion "  from  Erskine,  Burnouf,  Lassen,  and  Garcin  de 
Tassy — Dr.  Wilson  appointed  Honorary  President  of  the  Bombay  Asiatic 
Society — Society's  Address  to  him  and  his  Reply — Close  of  the  first  period  of 
his  Work  in  Western  India. 


"  Willt  Du  die  Bliitlie  des  friihen,  die  Friiclite  des  spateren  Jahres, 
Willt  Du  was  reizt  und  entziickt,  willt  Du  was  sattigt  und  nahrt, 
Willt  Du  den  Himmel,  die  Erde  mit  einem  Namen  begreifen, 
Nenn  ich,  SACONTALA,  Dich,  und  so  ist  Alles  gesagt."        GOETHE. 

"  If  a  man's  fame  can  be  measured  by  the  number  of  hearts  who  revere  his 
memory,  by  the  number  of  lips  who  have  mentioned  and  still  mention  him 
with  honour,  ASOKA  is  more  famous  than  Charlemagne  or  Csesar." 

KOEPPEN. 

"  In  past  times,  during  many  centuries,  attacking  animal  life  and  inflicting 
suffering  on  the  creatures,  want  of  respect  for  Brahmans  and  Sramanas  have 
only  grown  greater.  But  now,  when  King  Devanampriya  Priyadarsin  practises 
righteousness,  his  kettledrum  has  become  a  summons  to  righteousness,  while 
apparitions  of  chariots  of  the  gods,  and  apparitions  of  celestial  elephants,  and 
fiery  balls,  and  other  signs  in  the  heavens  showed  themselves  to  the  people. 
In  such  a  manner  as  has  not  been  the  case  in  many  centuries  previously,  now 
through  the  exhortation  of  King  Devanampriya  Priyadarsin  to  cultivate 
righteousness,  has  the  sparing  of  animal  life,  the  gentle  treatment  of  creatures, 
respect  for  relatives,  respect  for  Brahmans  and  monks,  obedience  to  father  and 
mother,  obedience  to  an  elder,  grown  greater.  This  and  many  other  kinds  of 
virtuous  practices  have  grown  greater,  and  King  Devanampriya  Priyadarsin 
shall  cause  this  practice  of  virtue  to  increase  still  more,  and  the  sons,  grand- 
sons, and  great-grandsons  of  King  Devanampriya  Priyadarsin  shall  also  cause 
this  culture  of  virtue  to  increase ;  standing  steadfast  in  righteousness  and 
morality  until  the  destruction  of  the  world,  they  shall  exhort  to  righteousness  ; 
to  exhort  to  righteousness  is  surely  a  very  excellent  work,  while  from  him  who 
is  immoral  no  practice  of  righteousness  is  to  be  expected.  Increase,  therefore, 
in  these  things,  and  no  diminution,  is  good  ;  for  this  end  has  this  been  written ; 
may  they  attend  heartily  to  the  increase  hereof,  and  not  aim  at  the  diminu- 
tion of  it !  King  Devanampriya  Priyadarsin  has  caused  this  to  be  written 
twelve  years  after  his  inauguration." 

ASOKA  :  Fourth  Edict.    Translated  by  Kern. 


1836.]        SIR  W.  JONES.       GOETHE.       SIR  J.  MACKINTOSH.         313 


CHAPTEE   X. 

WHEN,  not  yet  forty  years  of  age,  Sir  William  Jones  was 
sailing  across  the  Indian  Ocean,  India  itself  before  him, 
Persia  on  his  left,  and  a  breeze  from  Arabia  blowing  him  on, 
he  tells  us  that  "  in  the  midst  of  so  noble  an  amphitheatre, 
encircled  by  the  vast  regions  of  Asia,"  he  resolved  to  found 
that  greatest  successor  to  the  Eoyal  Society,  and  the  parent 
of  many  others — the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal.  In  1784, 
encouraged  by  Warren  Hastings  who  declined  the  office  of 
first  President  in  his  favour,  Sir  William  Jones  instituted  the 
first  "  Society  for  inquiring  into  the  history,  civil  and  national, 
the  antiquities,  arts,  sciences,  and  literature  of  Asia."  His 
translation  of  Sakoontala  had  revealed  to  Europe  the  virgin 
mine  of  Hindoo  literature,  as  Goethe  sang.  His  greater 
successor,  Henry  Thomas  Colebrooke,  on  finally  returning  to 
England,  founded  the  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society,  as  well  as  the 
Astronomical  Society. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  Western  India,  when  it  grew 
into  importance  as  a  Presidency  by  conquest  and  diplomacy, 
would  be  allowed  by  men  like  the  Governor  Jonathan  Duncan, 
and  Mountstuart  Elphinstone  and  Malcolm  afterwards,  to 
remain  unrepresented  in  the  republic  of  letters.  What  Sir 
William  Jones,  with  his  fresh  English  energy  and  Oxford 
zeal  did  for  the  accomplished  officials  who  surrounded  Warren 
Hastings,  Sir  James  Mackintosh  as  happily  effected  among 
the  few  who  were  associated  with  Jonathan  Duncan.  An 
Inverness  boy,  a  medical  graduate  of  Aberdeen,  an  ethical 
philosopher,  a  constitutional  lawyer,  and  a  keen  politician, 


314  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

Mackintosh  leaped  into  the  front  rank  of  the  Liberals  as  they 
were  at  the  close  of  last  century.  He  became  the  worthy  adver- 
sary of  Burke,  the  warm  friend  of  Eobert  Hall,  the  advocate 
of  Peltier  who,  charged  with  libelling  Napoleon  Buonaparte, 
found  in  the  impetuous  Scot  a  defender  whose  oration  the 
first  Lord  Ellenborough  pronounced  the  most  eloquent  he 
had  ever  heard  in  Westminster  Hall.  The  East  India  Com- 
pany's Law  Professorship  at  Haileybury  was  a  poor  resource 
for  a  man  who  had  squandered  a  paternal  estate  of  £900 
a  year.  And  so,  like  Macaulay  afterwards,  who  resembled 
him  in  many  respects,  Mackintosh  went  out  to  Bombay  as 
Eecorder,  was  knighted,  and  remained  there  for  eight  years, 
till  his  friends  thought  he  had  saved  enough  besides  earning 
a  pension.  The  simple  bachelor  habits  of  Jonathan  Duncan 
led  him  to  make  over  to  the  new  Judge  and  his  family  the 
principal  Government  house  in  the  island,  formerly  a  Jesuit 
College,  known  as  Parell.  Sir  James  had  not  been  many 
months  there  when,  on  the  26th  November  1804,  he  summoned 
a  meeting  of  friends  who  established  the  Literary  Society  of 
Bombay.  His  Discourse  on  that  occasion  mapped  out  the 
field  of  knowledge,  moral  and  physical,  which  the  observers 
of  Western  India  were  called  to  cultivate.  He  himself, 
as  President,  suggested  the  first  philological  and  statistical 
inquiries  on  a  uniform  scale,  which  were  not  systematically 
carried  out  till,  in  1862,  Lord  Canning  directed  the  adoption, 
for  all  India,  of  the  extended  scheme  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Claude 
Erskine,  the  grandson  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  and  by  the 
present  writer.  That  has  culminated  in  the  decennial  census, 
the  uniform  annual  Administration  Reports,  and  the  Gazetteers 
of  the  whole  Empire  of  India.1 

The  Literary  Society  of  Bombay  soon  established  a  repu- 

1  When  Mr.  Claude  Erskine  represented  Bombay  in  Lord  Canning's 
Legislative  Council,  we  issued  privately  proposals  for  the  formation  of  a 
Statistical  Society.  These  resulted  in  my  submitting  to  Government  a  scheme 
of  uniform  tables  for  the  annual  Administration  Reports,  adapted  to  the 


1836.]       SIR  J.  MACKINTOSH  AND  THE  LITERARY  SOCIETY.        315 

tation  from  the  researches  of  such  members  as  Mr.  William 
Erskine;  Colonel  Boden,  founder  of  the  Sanscrit  Chair  at 
Oxford ;  Colonel  Briggs,  who  succeeded  Captain  Grant  Duff 
as  Eesident  at  Satara ;  Colonel  Vans  Kennedy,  and  Captain 
Basil  Hall;  besides  Elphinstone  and  Malcolm.  Of  these 
Mackintosh  became  the  literary  adviser,  for  to  his  encourage- 
ment we  owe  such  classical  works  as  Wilks's  Mysore,  Elphin- 
stone's  Cdbul,  Briggs's  Ferishta,  Dr.  John  Taylor's  Lilawati, 
and  Malcolm's  Political  History  of  India.  Moor,  Drummond, 
Price,  Salt,  Colonel  Sykes,  Sir  Charles  Forbes,  Joseph  Hammer, 
and  the  erratic  Lord  Yalentia,  also  adorned  that  early  group, 
each  in  his  own  way.  Sir  James  urged  on  the  President  of 
the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society  that  co-operation  for  the  publica- 
tion of  translations  from  the  Sanscrit,  Arabic,  and  Persian, 
which,  in  another  form,  subsequently  issued  in  the  "  Oriental 
Translation  Fund,"  the  Notices  des  Manuscrits  de  la  Biblio- 
tlieque  du  Roi,  and  most  fully  of  all,  in  the  BibliotTieca  Indica. 
But  his  greatest  immediate  service  was  the  creation  of 
a  Library  which,  from  the  nucleus  sent  out  on  his  return 
to  England,  has  grown  to  be  the  most  useful,  alike  for 
the  scholar  and  the  general  reader,  in  all  Asia.  That  Library 
gave  the  Literary  Society  a  new  impetus.  Besides  the  papers 
which  its  members  contributed  to  the  Bengal  and  Eoyal 
Asiatic  Societies,  it  published  three  volumes  of  Transactions 
in  1819-1823,  and  these  have  recently  been  reprinted.1  In 
1830  it  was  incorporated  as  the  Bombay  Branch  of  the  Eoyal 
Asiatic  Society,  and  in  1841  it  issued  independently  the  first 
quarterly  number  of  its  Transactions,  now  a  goodly  series  of 
volumes.  When  Dr.  Wilson  settled  in  Bombay  he  thus 

statistical  systems  of  Europe.  An  official  committee  reported  on  these  tables, 
added  commercial  and  judicial  forms — the  latter  prepared  by  Sir  George 
Campbell — and  recommended  the  Census  and  Gazetteer  arrangements  now 
in  force. 

1  By  Mr.  Vishvanath  Narayan  Mandlik,  in  an  octavo  edition,  with  interest- 
ing mtroductorjr  information  and  notes.     Bombay,  1877. 


316  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

found  a  literary  and  scholarly  home,  to  which  in  a  few  years 
he  managed  to  add  a  museum.  Long  after,  in  1870,  he  thus 
expressed  his  gratitude  : — "  I  feel  that  I  am  under  very  great 
obligations  to  this  Society.  I  never  could  have  prosecuted 
my  studies,  such  as  they  have  been,  without  access  to  such  a 
Library  as  that  which  we  here  possess.  I  have  often  had  a 
hundred  volumes  from  this  Library  at  the  same  time  in  my 
possession,  and  though  I  have  now  accumulated  a  very  con- 
siderable Oriental  library  for  myself,  I  have  still  frequently 
to  refer  to  these  shelves  in  order  to  get  my  inquiries  satisfied. 
....  I  have  also  been  much  sustained  by  the  literary  com- 
munion we  have  here  enjoyed.  This  is  not  merely  the 
Bombay  Branch  of  the  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society,  but  a  sort  of 
literary  and  scientific  club." 

But  in  truth  Dr.  Wilson  had  not  been  a  year  in  Bombay 
when  he  came  to  be  recognised  as  the  most  zealous ,  member 
of  the  Society,  and  soon  to  be  identified  with  it  as  almost  the 
Society  itself.  In  1830  Sir  John  Malcolm  proposed  him  as  a 
member,  and  from  that  day  his  activity  was  such  that,  in 
1835,  the  young  Scottish  missionary  was  unanimously  elected 
President  in  succession  to  so  ripe  a  scholar  as  Colonel  Vans 
Kennedy.  Every  tour  that  he  made  year  by  year,  every 
manuscript  that  he  purchased,  every  oriental  book  that  he 
read,  contributed  material  to  the  Asiatic  Society,  which 
Government  royally  accommodated  in  the  fine  suite  of  rooms 
surrounding  the  Town  Hall  of  Bombay.  Nor  did  he,  in  all 
this  intercourse  with  scholars,  non-Christian  as  well  as  Chris- 
tian, veil  for  a  moment  the  earnestness  of  his  own  convic- 
tions, or  restrain  his  duty  as  a  missionary.  With  the  then 
distinguished  Orientalist  whom  he  succeeded  as  president,  he 
had  for  years  conducted  a  public  controversy.  In  his 
Ancient  and  Hindu  Mythology,  and  in  his  Treatise  on  the, 
Vedanta,  Colonel  Vans  Kennedy  had  appeared  as  something 
like  the  apologist  of  Vedic  and  Brahmanical  beliefs.  While 


1836.]  PEESIDENT  OF  BOMBAY  ASIATIC  SOCIETY.  317 

admitting  and  even  eulogising  the  ability  of  these  disquisi- 
tions as  the  most  learned  up  to  that  time,  Dr.  Wilson  exposed 
views  which  he  proved  to  be  as  superficial  as  they  were 
hostile  to  the  work  he  had  come  to  India  to  do.  But  if  his 
hand  was  the  hand  of  iron,  he  ever  used  the  glove  of  silk. 
His  courtesy,  even  in  the  impetuosity  of  youth,  was  as 
remarkable  as  his  gentle  chivalry  towards  all  when  years 
and  toil  began  to  weaken  his  arm. 

Dr.  Wilson's  first  address  as  President  on  the  27th 
January  1836,  reviewed  the  work  of  the  Society  and  the 
desiderata  of  research,  from  the  similar  discourses  of  Sir 
James  Mackintosh  in  1804  and  Sir  John  Malcolm  in  1828, 
up  to  that  time.  He  showed  that  it  had  failed  to  realise 
the  anticipations  of  the  founder  as  to  Natural  History  and 
Statistics.  He  declared  the  condition  of  the  people  in  the 
different  provinces,  as  to  language,  religion,,literature,  science, 
art,  means  of  support,  and  manners  and  customs,  to  be  the 
paramount  object  of  the  Society's  investigation.  Beginning 
with  the  Parsees,  he  reviewed  the  contributions  to  a  study  of 
them  made  by  Malcolm,  Kennedy,  Erskine,  Eask,  Mohl,  Shea, 
Neumann,  and  Atkinson,  arguing  that  "  Should  any  of  the 
Parsees,  of  competent  attainments,  and  real  and  respectable 
character  and  influence,  ask  membership  of  this  Society,  it 
should  be  readily  accorded."  Such  advocacy  of  the  claims  of 
native  inquirers  and  scholars  was  characteristic  of  Dr.  Wilson, 
and  it  soon  bore  fruit.  He  pointed  to  Burnouf  as  the  savan 
best  fitted  to  translate  faithfully  the  Vandidad  Sade,  but 
plainly  hinted  that  the  work  might  be  done  in  Bombay  should 
that  great  scholar  fail  from  the  disadvantages  of  his  situation 
in  Europe.  As  to  Muhammadanism,  he  desiderated  that  fuller 
account  of  the  state  of  Arabia  at  the  time  of  its  origin,  which 
Muir  and  Sprenger  soon  after  gave,  and  of  the  Bohoras  and 
other  sectaries  whom  he  himself  was  studying.  His  observa- 
tions on  researches  into  Hindooism  may  be  read  with  profit 


318  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

even  after  the  forty  years'  scholarship  of  Anglo-Indians,  Ger- 
mans, and  Italians.  To  Horace  Hayman  Wilson,  who  had 
not  long  been  transferred  from  Calcutta  to  Oxford,  he  looked 
for  a  complete  translation  of  the  Rig  Veda,  much  of  which 
had  appeared  first  in  Bombay ;  and  of  the  JBhagavata  Purana, 
the  greatest  practical  authority  in  the  West  of  India.  On 
the  various  Hindoo  sects,  and  on  the  Jains,  he  sought  for 
much  light,  such  as  he  himself  afterwards  gave.  The  de- 
spised aborigines,  downtrodden  by  Hindoo  and  Muhammadan, 
and  ignored  by  the  ruling  class,  save  by  civilians  like  Sir 
Donald  Macleod  and  missionaries,  Dr.  Wilson  pronounced 
"  Particularly  worthy  of  observation  by  all  who  desire  to 
advance  their  civilisation,  and  to  elevate  them  from  their  pre- 
sent degradation.  Description  must  precede  any  considerable 
efforts  made  for  their  improvement — perhaps  leading  to  im- 
portant conjectures  as  to  the  ancient  history  of  India." 
Many  of  these  "  have  had  no  connection  with  Brahmanism  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  they  may  have  felt  its  unhallowed  influence 
in  excluding  them  from  the  common  privileges  of  humanity." 
He  enlarged  on  the  duty  of  collecting  Sanscrit  MSS.,  a 
work  not  undertaken  by  Government  till  a  much  later  date, 
but  now  prosecuted  with  great  zeal  and  liberality  in  almost 
every  province.  Such  manuscripts,  he  said,  are  to  be  found 
in  a  pure  state  in  the  Dekhan  more  than  in  any  other  part  of 
India,  and  the  poverty  of  the  Brahmans  leads  them  readily  to 
part  with  them.  After  eulogising  the  work  of  Mr.  William 
Erskine,  and  his  own  old  missionary  colleague,  Dr.  Stevenson, 
in  their  researches  into  the  architecture  and  inscriptions  of 
cave  temples,  Dr.  Wilson  said: — "We  require  information  as 
to  the  time  at  which,  and  the  views  with  which,  they  were  con- 
structed ;  an  estimate  of  them  as  works  of  art,  or  as  indicative 
of  the  resources  of  thos*e  to  whom  they  are  to  be  ascribed ; 
and  an  inquiry  into  the  religious  rites  and  services  for  which 
they  have  been  appropriated,  and  the  moral  impressions 


1836.]          INDIAN  MISSIONARIES  MUST  HAVE  LEARNING.  319 

which  they  seem  fitted  to  make  on  those  resorting  to  them. 
Grants  of  land,  engraven  on  copper  plates,  are  next  to  them  in 
importance  in  the  advancement  of  antiquarian  research.  Dr. 
Taylor  translated  one,  Mr.  Wathen  others." 

We  find  the  key-note  of  Dr.  Wilson's  scholarship  and 
erudition  in  this  reference  to  "  The  systems  of  faith  which 
have  so  long  exercised  their  sway  in  this  country,  and  the 
various  literary  works  which,  though  unlike  those  of  Greece  and 
Borne  they  are  of  little  or  no  use  in  the  cultivation  of  taste, 
are  valuable  as  they  illustrate  the  tendency  of  those  systems 
in  their  connection  with  social  and  public  life ;  and  as  they 
explain  a  language  the  most  copious  in  its  vocables  and 
powerful  in  its  grammatical  forms,  in  which  any  records  exist. 
Destitute  of  a  knowledge  of  these  systems,  and  the  works  in 
which  they  are  embodied,  the  native  character  and  the  state 
of  native  society  will  never  be  sufficiently  understood,  a  right 
key  obtained  to  open  the  native  mind,  and  all  desirable  faci- 
lities enjoyed  for  the  introduction  among  the  people  of  a  body 
of  rational  and  equitable  law,  and  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  and  the  promotion  of  general  education.  .  .  .  While 
divine  truth  must  be  propagated  with  unwavering  fidelity, 
and  all  hopes  of  its  ultimate  success  rest  on  its  own 
potency,  its  suitableness  to  the  general  character  of  man,  and 
the  assistance  of  divine  grace,  judgment  ought  to  be  employed 
in  the  mode  of  its  application  to  those  who  vary  much  in 
their  creeds  and  differ  much  in  their  moral  practice.  Though 
the  great  truths  proclaimed  by  the  Apostle  Paul  were  the 
same  in  all  circumstances,  they  were  introduced  in  very  dif- 
ferent ways  to  the  Jewish  Eabbis  and  people  and  to  the 
members  of  the  Athenian  Areopagus.  I  must  hold  that  there 
is  no  little  unsuitableness  in  India  in  addressing  a  pantheist 
as  a  polytheist  and  vice  versa ;  in  speaking  to  a  Jain  as  to  a 
Brahman,  in  condemning  that  at  random  which  the  natives 
may  suppose  to  be  unknown,  and  in  using  theological  terms 


320 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1836. 


and  general  phrases  without  any  very  definite  sense  of  their 
application  by  the  natives  themselves.  The  more  a  know- 
ledge of  Hindooism  and  of  Hindoo  literature  is  possessed  by 
any  teacher,  the  more  patiently  and  uninterruptedly  will  he 
be  listened  to  by  the  people,  and  the  more  forcibly  will  he  be 
enabled,  and  principally  by  contrast  and  concession,  to  set 
forth  the  authority  and  the  excellence  of  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity."  The  address  concluded  with  a  reference  to  the 
many  Armenians  in  India,  of  whom  Dr.  Wilson  remarked,  in 
allusion  to  Mr.  Dickinson's  dissertation  on  the  antiquity  of 
their  language  in  the  Journal  of  the  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society, 
"  There  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  the  Armenians  can  fill  up 
important  blanks  in  Church  history  which,  to  the  undue 
neglect  of  the  Orientals,  is  principally  formed  on  the  authority 
of  the  Eoman  and  Byzantine  Fathers." 

The  new  President's  Address  called  forth  a  request,  pro- 
posed and  seconded  by  Mr  Bruce  and  Mr.  Farish,  that  it 
should  be  printed.  Mr.  James  Prinsep  republished  it  in  the 
fifth  volume  of  the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society's  Journal,  with 
this  introduction — "  We  make  no  apology,  but  rather  feel  a 
pride,  in  transferring  it  to  our  pages  entire."  It  must  be  taken 
as  a  directory  to  Dr.  Wilson  himself  of  much  that  he  meant 
to  overtake,  and  did  more  than  overtake  in  the  wide  area  of 
Orientalism.  The  immediate  effect  of  the  Address,  when  it 
reached  Europe,  and  of  the  position  in  which  the  young 
missionary  had  been  placed  as  the  successor  of  Sir  James 
Mackintosh,  Mr.  William  Erskine,  Sir  John  Malcolm,  and 
Vans  Kennedy,  was  his  election  as  a  member  of  the  Eoyal 
Asiatic  Society  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  on  the  18th  of 
June  1836. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  estimate  the  exact  value  of 
Dr.  Wilson's  contribution  to  the  deciphering  of  the  fourteen 
edicts  graven  by  the  Buddhist  Emperor  Asoka  on  the 
rocks  of  Girnar  and  other  places  in  India,  north  and  east, 


1836.]  LETTER  TO  J.  PRINSEP  ON  GIRNAR  EDICTS.  321 

as  well  as  west.  We  have  seen  from  his  journal,  on  page  205, 
that  on  the  13th  March  1835,  Dr.  Wilson,  hurrying  down  from 
the  peak  of  Girnar  before  the  darkness  of  the  night  should  come 
on,  examined  "  the  ancient  inscriptions  which,  though  never 
deciphered,  have  attracted  much  attention."  In  1822  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel James  Tod  had  been  the  first  to  notice1  the 
antiquities  of  "the  old  fort,"  which  Joonagurh  means,  and 
"  the  noblest  monument  of  Saurashtra,  a  monument  speaking 
in  an  unknown  tongue  of  other  times,  and  calling  to  the 
Frank  '  Vedyavan  '  or  savan  to  remove  the  spell  of  ignorance 
in  which  it  has  been  enveloped  for  ages."  But  Colonel  Tod 
had  contented  himself  with  directing  his  old  Gooroo,  or  pundit, 
to  copy  two  of  the  edicts,  and  a  portion  of  a  third,  while  he 
speculated  quite  in  the  dark  as  to  the  author  of  the  inscrip- 
tions. Nothing  more  was  heard  of  the  most  interesting  his- 
torical rock-book  in  all  southern  Asia  for  the  next  thirteen 
years,  till  Dr.  Wilson  stood  before  it.  "After,"  he  says,  "  com- 
paring the  letters  with  several  Sanskrita  alphabets  in  my 
possession  I  found  myself  able,  to  my  great  joy  and  that  of 
the  Brahmans  who  were  with  me,  to  make  out  several  words, 
and  to  decide  as  to  the  probable  possibility  of  making  out  the 
whole.  The  taking  a  copy  of  the  inscriptions  I  found  from 
their  extent  to  be  a  hopeless  task,  but,  as  Captain  Lang  had 
kindly  promised  to  procure  a  transcript  of  the  whole  for  me, 
I  did  not  regret  the  circumstance."  He  subsequently  wrote 
thus  to  James  Prinsep  : — 

"  I  suggested  to  Captain  Lang  a  plan  for  taking  a  facsimile  of  the 
inscriptions.  I  recommended  him  to  cover  the  rock  with  native  paper 
slightly  moistened,  and  to  trace  with  ink  the  depressions  corresponding 
with  the  forms  of  the  letters.  The  idea  of  using  cloth,  instead  of  paper, 
was  entirely  his  own  ;  and  to  that  able  officer,  and  his  native  assistants, 
are  we  indebted  for  the  very  correct  facsimile  which  he  presented  to 

1  See  his  Travels  in  WestQn  India,  p.  369.  His  Annals  and  Antiquities 
of  Rajast'han  was  published  in  1829,  and  reprinted  in  Madras  in  1873. 


322  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

me,  and  which  I  forwarded  to  you  some  months  ago  for  your  inspec- 
tion and  use.  During  the  time  that  it  was  in  Bombay  it  was  mostly 
with  Mr.  Wathen,  who  got  prepared  for  yourself  the  reduced  transcript, 
and  with  a  native,  who,  at  the  request  of  our  Asiatic  Society,  and  with 
my  permission,  prepared  a  copy  for  M.  Jacquet  of  Paris.  I  had  com- 
menced the  deciphering  of  it  when  you  kindly  communicated  to  me 
the  discovery  of  your  alphabet ;  and  I  at  once  determined  that  you, 
as  was  most  justly  due,  should  have  the  undivided  honour  of  first  pro- 
mulgating its  mysteries.  Any  little  progress  which  I  had  made  in  the 
attempt  to  forge  a  key,  was  from  the  assistance  which  I  had  received 
from  the  alphabets  formerly  published  in  your  transcendantly  able  work, 
Mr.  Elliot's  Canarese  alphabets,  and  the  rigid  deductions  of  VISHNU 
SHASTRI,  my  quondam  pundit,  to  whom  Mr.  "Wathen  has  expressed  his 
obligations  in  his  paper  on  some  ancient  copperplate  grants  lately  sent 
by  him  to  England.  VISHNU'S  palaeographical  studies,  I  may  mention, 
commenced  with  Dr.  Babbington's  paper,  which  I  showed  to  him  some 
years  ago  ;  and  they  were  matured  under  Mr.  WATHEN.  I  mention 
these  facts  from  my  desire  to  act  according  to  the  maxim  suum  cuique 
tribue. 

"The  rock  containing  the  inscriptions,  it  should  be  observed,  is 
about  half  a  mile  to  the  eastward  of  [the  present  town  of]  Jundgdrh, 
and  about  four  miles  from  the  base  of  Girndr,  which  is  in  the  same 
direction.  It  marks,  I  should  think,  the  extremity  of  the  Maryddd  of 
the  sacred  mountain.  The  Jainas,  as  the  successors  of  the  Buddhas, 
greatly  honour  it.  They  maintain  pinjardpurs,  or  brute  hospitals,  like 
the  Banyas  of  Surat,  in  many  of  the  towns  both  of  the  peninsula  and 
province  of  Gujarat ;  and  practise  to  a  great  extent  the  philopsychy  of 
the  long  forgotten,  but  now  restored,  edicts  of  ASOKA." 

Dr.  Wilson  was  thus  not  only  the  first  scholar  to  report 
intelligently  on  the  inscriptions,  and  to  cause  a  copy  of  them 
to  be  carefully  taken,  but  to  translate  "  several  words  "  at 
first  sight,  to  "  commence  the  deciphering,"  and  to  satisfy  him- 
self that  he  could  probably  make  out  the  whole  in  the  leisure 
of  his  study.  This  his  knowledge  of  Sanscrit,  and  his  toil- 
some study  of  "  several  ancient  Sanskrita  alphabets,"  lists  of 
which  we  find  in  his  rough  note-books,  enabled  him  to  do. 
To  the  last,  more  brilliant  discoverers  devoted  to  this  one 
work,  like  James  Prinsep  and  Colonel  Mackenzie,  were  ignp- 


1836.]  DECIPHERING  THE  PALI  INSCRIPTIONS.  323 

rant  of  Sanscrit.  Prinsep  modestly  confesses  that  he  had 
long  despaired  of  deciphering  the  famous  Samudra  Gupta's 
inscription  on  the  Allahabad  pillar,  from  "  want  of  a  compe- 
tent knowledge  of  Sanscrit."1  Priority  in  time  and  mastery 
of  Sanscrit  characters  and  literature  gave  Dr.  Wilson  an 
advantage  over  all  the  scholars  of  that  day  in  India ;  for 
Horace  Hayman  Wilson  had  left  Bengal  in  1833,  and  Dr. 
Mill,  on  whom  his  mantle  fell,  though  translating  what 
General  Cunningham  calls  "several  important  inscriptions," 
resigned  the  position  of  head  of  Bishop's  College,  Calcutta, 
in  1837,  and  in  his  departure  Prinsep  bewailed  an  irre- 
parable loss.  General  Cunningham  ascribes  to  Professor 
Lassen  the  honour  of  having  been  the  first  to  read  "  any  of 
these  unknown  characters,"  on  coins  at  least.  A  letter 
from  him  to  James  Prinsep,  shows2  that  in  1836  the 
greatest  German  Orientalist  of  his  day  had  read  the  Indian 
Pali  legend  on  the  square  copper  coins  of  Agathokles,  as 
Agathukla  Raja.  But  Dr.  Wilson's  papers  prove  that  he  was 
even  then  familiar  with  the  characters  on  coins,  while  this 
letter  does  not  affect  the  credit  due  to  him  in  the  matter  of 
the  rock  inscriptions.  Captain  Lang  seems  to  have  delayed 
for  a  year  the  transmission  to  him  of  copies  of  the  Girnar 
inscriptions. 

"  BOMBAY,  15th  June  1836. — MY  DEAR  CAPTAIN  LANG. — A  few  days 
ago  I  received  by  your  servant  the  facsimiles  and  copies  of  the  Girnar 
inscriptions.  You  have  succeeded  in  getting  them  executed  in  a  style, 
and  with  a  minute  accuracy,  far  exceeding  my  expectations  ;  and  I 
cannot  sufficiently  express  to  you  the  gratitude  which  I  feel  for  all  your 
trouble,  and  for  a  present  which  I  so  highly  value.  My  time  does  not 
at  present  enable  me  to  do  much  in  the  attempt  to  decipher  them,  as 
all  my  leisure  is  generally  employed  in  preparing  for  the  press  a 
Memoir  of  my  dearest  wife  for  publication  in  Edinburgh  ;  but  I  shall 

1  Compare  p.  117  of  Journal  of   Bengal  Asiatic  Society  for  1834,  with 
p.  452  of  that  for  1837. 

2  Volume  I.  of  Reports  of  Archaeological  Survey  of  India,  p.  xii. 


324  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

in  a  few  months,  I  hope,  be  able  to  give  my  attention  to  them,  and  to 
prepare  a  paper  connected  with  them  for  the  Asiatic  Society,  in  which 
I  shall  do  justice  to  the  liberality  and  kindness  which  have  put  me  in 
possession  of  them.  Every  person  who  has  seen  them  here  is  much 
interested  in  them.  I  exhibited  them  the  other  evening  to  a  consider- 
able number  of  European  and  Native  gentlemen. 

"  I  shall  attend  to  what  you  mention  in  reference  to  Mr.  Wathen. 
I  got  from  him  a  few  days  ago  a  copy  of  the  inscriptions  at  Karadi  on 
Salsette.  They  appear  from  the  termination  of  the  genitive  case  to  be 
in  Pali.  As  they  are  very  imperfect,  owing  to  the  softness  and  decay 
of  the  rock,  I  fear  that  nothing  can  be  made  of  them.  Most  of  the 
letters  which  are  distinct  we  know. 

"  You  will  doubtless  have  heard  of  the  fossil  bones  discovered  in 
the  island  of  Perim.  The  Baron  Hugel,  who  has  sent  me  a  large  box 
of  them  for  the  Asiatic  Society,  says  that  he  thinks  that  similar  speci- 
mens may  be  got  on  the  mainland  in  Katyawar,  which  I  think  not 
unlikely.  The  bones  in  the  box  here  are  chiefly  of  the  Mastodon  Gigas, 
of  Bos,  and  of  Cervus.  They  are  very  curious.  The  fragment  of  the 
horn  of  a  stag  indicates  about  the  same  size  to  that  animal,  as  is  seen  in 
the  fossil  stag  from  the  Isle  of  Man  in  the  Museum  of  the  University 
of  Edinburgh. 

"  The  rains  have  set  in  here  very  pleasantly,  though  not  as  yet 
very  abundantly. 

"  There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  conversation  here  from  first  to  last 
about  the  Morvi  business.  I  suppose  that  you  will  have  got  it  now  all 
satisfactorily  settled.  You  must  see  much  of  the  workings  of  corrupted 
human  nature  in  the  quarrels  which  you  have  to  settle.  It  is  well  for 
the  natives  that  they  have  got  European  gentlemen  of  honour  to  whom 
they  can  appeal.  Truth  and  justice  are  not  much  regarded  by  them- 
selves when  their  own  interests  are  involved.  The  minds  which  appear 
to  be  as  placid  as  the  waters  of  a  tank  which  have  never  been  ruffled 
by  the  wind,  have  only  to  be  a  little  agitated  to  discover  the  most 
noxious  putridity,  increased  by  their  former  stagnancy. 

"  Will  you  remember  me  in  the  kindest  manner  to  Dr.  Graham, 
and  also  to  Mr.  Dickinson,  and  believe  me  to  be,  my  dear  Captain 
Lang,  yours  most  sincerely,  JOHN  WILSON. 

"  CAPTAIN  W.  LANG,  First  Assistant 
Political  Agent,  Kajkot." 

This  delay,  coupled  with  Dr.  Wilson's  unselfish  regard  for 
others,  his  devotion  to  truth  in  all  its  forms,  and  the  fine 


1836.]  J.  PRINSEP  AND  THE  ARIAN  ALPHABET.  325 

entlmsi  r  m  of  the  young  scholar  of  Bengal — though  five  years 
his  senior — led  to  the  despatch  of  the  facsimiles  to  Prinsep. 
He  was  already  partially  making  the  Arian  Pali  legends  of 
the  Bactrian  Greek  coins  tell  their  historical  tale,  and  was 
poring  over  the  Indian  Pali  legends  of  the  coins  of  Surashtra, 
Mr.  Masson  had  given  him  the  clue  through  the  Pahlavi  signs 
for  Menandron  Apollodoton,  Erinaion,  JBasileos,  and  Soteros. 
as  he  acknowledged  in  1835.  General  Cunningham,  his  corre- 
spondent and  friend  even  in  those  early  days,  admits  that  "  in 
both  of  these  achievements  the  first  step  towards  discovery 
was  made  by  others."  That  clue  led  him  successfully  to 
recognise  sixteen  of  the  thirty-three  consonants  of  the  Arian 
alphabet,1  and  to  give  a  provisional  translation  of  the  rock 
inscriptions,  before,  in  April  1840,  illness  induced  by  over- work 
deprived  oriental  scholarship  of  its  most  promising  ornament.2 
Now  what  does  James  Prinsep  himself  say  of  Dr.  Wilson 
in  this  matter  of  the  Girnar  inscriptions  ?  The  admission  of 

1  In  his  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Indicarum,  vol.  i.  (Calcutta,  1877),  Cunning- 
ham, who  at  page  14  confounds  the  transcriptions  of  the  Asoka  Edicts  "made  by 
Captains  Lang  and  Postans,"  and  so  unconsciously  does  injustice  to  Dr.  Wilson, 
has  an  interesting  chapter  on  the  Pali  vernacular  of  the  empire  of  Asoka,  in 
which  the  Edicts  are  written.     He  recognises  three  distinct  varieties,  which  he 
terms  the  Punjabee  or  north-western,  the  Ujjenee  or  middle,  and  the  Magadhee 
or  eastern  dialect.     He  endorses  the  opinion  of  Thomas  that  the  Indian  Pali 
alphabet  is  an  independently  devised  and  locally  matured  scheme  of  writing, 
as  much  as  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt  were.     Thomas  quotes  the  opinions  of 
Dr.  Wilson,  "that  Asoka's  Buddhists  derived  their  letters  from  Greek  and 
Phoenician  models  ;"  of  Weber,  who  holds  that  they  "are  emanations  from  a 
Phoenician  stock,"  and  of  Mr.  Max  Miiller,  who  "will  not  admit  that  the 
Indians  acquired  the  art  of  writing  till  a  comparatively  late  period."     See  also 
Weber's  History  of  Indian  Literature  (1878),  p.  295. 

2  In  the  popular  account  of  the  Buddhist  inscriptions  of  Pooree,  given  in 
vol.  xix.  of  A  Statistical  Account  of  Bengal  (1877),  James  Prinsep  is  incorrectly 
described  as  "  Mr.  Prinsep,  C.S."     The  Civil  Service  of  India,  which  has  given 
and  continues  to  give  not  a  few  distinguished  names  to  oriental  scholarship, 
can  afford  to  admit  that  James  Prinsep  Vas  one  of  the  many  workers  in  India, 
who,  belonging  to  neither  Service,  have  borne  a  share  in  the  civilisation  of 
British  India  never  recognised  by  the  Company's  and  hardly  acknowledged 
by  the  Queen's  Government. 


326  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

the  missionary  scholar's  merit,  previously  made  when  repub- 
lishing  his  address  as  President  in  the  Bengal  Journal,  is 
almost  as  modest  and  courteous  as  Dr.  Wilson's  action  had 
been.  It  affords  a  fine  example  to  those  orientalists  of  the 
present  day  who,  in  Germany,  in  America,  and  in  England, 
have  sometimes  proved  themselves  vain  controversialists.  In 
1837  Mr.  Wathen  had  sent  to  him,  and  also  to  M.  Jacquet  of 
Paris — a  young  orientalist  of  promise — the  reduced  copy  of  the 
facsimiles,  "  which  had  been  taken  on  cloth  by  the  Eev.  Dr. 
Wilson."  On  7th  March  1838  Prinsep  read  his  paper  on  the 
"  Discovery  of  the  name  of  Antiochus  the  Great  in  two  of  the 
Edicts  of  Asoka,  King  of  India,"  nearly  three  years  after  Dr. 
Wilson's  first  partial  translation.  But  he  uses  this  honourable 
language l — "  I  should  indeed  be  doing  an  injustice  to  Captain 
Lang,  who  executed  the  cloth  facsimile  for  the  President  of 
the  Bombay  Literary  Society,  and  to  Dr.  Wilson  himself,  who 
so  graciously  placed  it  at  my  disposal  when,  doubtless,  he 
might  with  little  trouble  have  succeeded  himself  in  interpret- 
ing it  much  better  than  I  can  do,  from  his  well-known  pro- 
ficiency in  the  Sanscrit  language — it  would,  I  say,  be  an 
injustice  to  them  were  I  to  withhold  the  publication  of  what 
is  already  prepared  for  the  press,  which  may  be  looked  upon 
as  their  property  and  their  discovery,  and  to  mix  it  with  what 
may  hereafter  be  obtained  by  a  more  accurate  survey  of  the 
spot." 

Prinsep's  enthusiasm,  as  he  worked  his  way  through  these 
rock  inscriptions  in  the  weeks  of  February  and  March  1838, 
and  occasionally  stumbled  over  the  mutilated  portions  of  the 
facsimiles,  led  him  to  petition  the  Governor-General  to  order 
another  rubbing  to  be  taken,  and  the  Governor  of  Bombay 
despatched  Lieutenant  .Postans  to  the  spot.  That  officer  "  took 

1  Essays  on  Indian  Antiquities  of  the  late  James  Prinsep,  F.R.S.,  etc. 
Edited  by  Edward  Thomas,  vol.  ii.  page  56.  This  book  has  had  a  curious 
history,  and  is  now  so  rare  as  to  sell  for  eight  guineas  and  more. 


THE  GIRNAR  ROCK. 


THE  SECOND  EDICT  OF  ASOKA. 


1836.]  THE  GIRNAR  ROCK  DESCRIBED.  '327 

infinite  pains  to  secure  exactitude,  aided  by  Captain  Lang, 
who  was  with  him,"  according  to  Captain  Le  Grand  Jacob's 
account.  But,  alas !  Prinsep  was  no  more  when  the  MSS. 
and  cloth  copies  reached  Calcutta.  Not  till  1870  did  General 
Cunningham  stumble  upon  the  neglected  treasures  there, 
although  duplicates  had  been  sent  to  the  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society. 
Captain  Jacob  and  Mr.  Westergaard  made  fresh  copies  to 
secure  complete  accuracy.  The  Government  of  Bombay  has 
of  late  shown  an  intelligent  interest  in  the  priceless  antiqui- 
ties of  Western  India  by  appointing  an  archaeological  surveyor 
and  reporter  so  competent  as  Mr.  J.  Burgess,  M.E.A.S.,  and 
long  Dr.  Wilson's  friend.  His  examination  of  the  Girnar 
antiquities  and  his  estampages  of  the  inscriptions,  as  described 
in  his  second  report,  were  the  most  careful  and  thorough  of 
all,  and  may  be  regarded  as  final.  He  sets  at  rest  the  re- 
maining doubts  of  Professor  Weber.  After  referring  to  Dr. 
Wilson's  first  transcript,  he  thus  describes  the  stone : — 

"The  Asoka  inscription  at  Girnar  covers  considerably 
over  a  hundred  square  feet  of  the  uneven  surface  of  a  huge 
rounded  and  somewhat  conical  granite  boulder,  rising  12  feet 
above  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  about  75  feet  in  circum- 
ference at  the  base.  It  occupies  the  greater  portion  of  the 
north-east  face,  and,  as  is  well  known,  is  divided  down  the 
centre  by  a  vertical  line ;  on  the  left,  or  east  side,  of  which 
are  the  first  five  edicts  or  tablets,  divided  from  one  another 
by  horizontal  lines;  on  the  right  are  the  next  seven,  simi- 
larly divided ;  the  thirteenth  has  been  placed  below  the  fifth 
and  twelfth,  and  is  unfortunately  damaged;  and  the  four- 
teenth is  placed  to  the  right  of  the  thirteenth." 

We  reproduce  Westergaard's  accurate  transcript  of  the 
Second  Edict,  that  our  readers  may  see  the  characters  on 
which  first  Dr.  Wilson  and  then  James  Prinsep  worked.  *  The 
Thirteenth  Edict  follows/  in  a  transliterated  form,  and  as 
mutilated  by  what  Tod  calls  "  the  magnificent  vanity  of  Sun- 


328  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1836. 

darji,  the  horse  merchant,"  whose  people,  when  making  a 
causeway  to  the  spot  from  Joonagurh,  seem  to  have  used  a 
part  of  the  fifth  as  well  as  of  the  thirteenth  tablet.  Mr. 
Burgess,  in  1869,  found  the  precious  Eock  occupied  by  "  a 
lazy,  sanctimonious,  naked  devotee,  whose  firewood  lay 
against  the  sides  of  the  stone,  whilst  fragments  of  broken 
earthenware  covered  the  top  of  it."  The  engraving  is  from 
a  photograph,  taken  under  his  direction,  from  the  wall  of  the 
causeway.  The  Joonagurh  chief,  a  Muhammadan,  has,  at  the 
request  of  Government,  now  protected  the  stone  by  a  roof. 

The  latest  rendering  of  the  Second  Edict,  by  Professor 
Kern  of  Leyden,  is  this  : — 

"In  the  whole  dominion  of  King  Devanampriya  Priyadarsin,  as 
also  in  the  adjacent  countries,  as  Chola  (Tanjore),  Pandya  (Arcot), 
Satyaputra,  Keralaputra  (Malabar),  as  far  as  Tamraparni  (Ceylon),  the 
kingdom  of  Antiochus  the  Grecian  king,  and  of  his  neighbour  kings, 
the  system  of  caring  for  the  sick  both  of  men  and  cattle,  followed  by 
King  Devanampriya  Priyadarsin,  has  been  everywhere  brought  into 
practice;  and  at  all  places  where  useful  healing  herbs  for  men  and 
cattle  were  wanting  he  has  caused  them  to  be  brought  and  planted  ; 
and  at  all  places  where  roots  and  fruits  were  wanting  he  has  caused 
them  to  be  brought  and  planted  ;  also  he  has  caused  wells  to  be  dug 
and  trees  to  be  planted  on  the  roads  for  the  benefit  of  men  and  cattle." 

THIRTEENTH  EDICT  OF  ASOKA,  TRANSLITERATED. 

1  .  .  de  patasa  pasamatam  et&hatanj  baha  tavata  kammata  tata  pachha 

adhuna  ladhesu  kalingesu  tivo  dhammavayo 

2  ....  vadho  va  maranam  va  apavaho  va  janasata  badham  vedana 

matacha  ganamatacha  Deva 

3 sa"  mata  pitari  susumsa"  guru  sumsumsa  mita- 

samstata  sahaya  sa  dasa 

4 ya  natika  vyasanam  papunoti  vata  sopi  tesam 

upaghato  patipati  bhago  vasa  sava  .  .  . 

6       mi  (?)  yato  nasti  manusanam  ekataramhi  pasamdamhi 

na  nama  pasade  yavakato  jana  tada 

8 na  yasaka  va  mitaveya*  vapi  ataviyo  Devanampiyasa 

pijite  pati 


1836.]       HISTORICAL  LINKS  BETWEEN  INDIA  AND  GREECE.        329 

r sava  bhutanam  achhatim  cha  sayamamcha  samam  (?) 

....  cheram  cha  madava  cha 

8 Yona  raja  paramcha  tena  chattaro  rajano  Turamayo  cha 

Antakana  cha  Maga  cha 

9 idhe   parimde    savata  Devanampiyasa    dhammanusastim 

annvatareyata  piduti 

10 vajayo  savatha  puna  vijayo  piti  raso  sa  ladha"  ssi  pit! 

hoti  dhaimna  vijayammhi 

11 yam  vijayamma  vijatavyam  mam  nasarasake  eva  vijay- 

echhati  cha 
12 iloklka  cha  paralokika  cha 

This  is  so  mutilated  that  Professor  H.  H.  Wilson  did  not 
venture  to  propose  a  rendering  of  it  while  criticising  James 
Prinsep's.  We  select  these  two  out  of  the  fourteen  Edicts 
for  purely  English  readers,  because  they  form  the  historical 
links  which  connect  India  with  Greece.  It  is  in  the  Second 
Edict  that  the  .name  of  the  Yona,  Yavan,  Ionian  or  Greek 
king  Antiochus  occurs,  that  Antiochus  II.  who  died  B.C.  247, 
in  the  twelfth  year  of  Priyadasi's  or  Asoka's  reign.  Still 
more  reliable  is  the  Thirteenth  Tablet,  damaged  though  it  be, 
for  it  gives  us  the  names  of  other  Greek  kings  in  the  eighth 
line — Ptolemaios,  Atigonus,  and  Magas ;  and  of  a  fourth  to 
whom  Asoka  sent  embassies  which  "  won  from  them  a  victory 
not  by  the  sword  but  by  religion."  * 

Until  the  last  Dr.  Wilson  continued  to  exchange  with 
Prinsep  coins  and  inscriptions,  and  a  very  learned  corre- 
spondence so  covered  or  interspersed  with  Pali  alphabets  and 
readings  that  we  cannot  reproduce  it.  In  one  letter  without 
date,  but  referring  to  the  above  edict,  Mr.  Prinsep  writes 
thus  to  Dr.  Wilson :  The  letter  is  prefaced  by  a  copy  of  the 
Arian  alphabet  and  its  English  translation : — 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR. — I  was  much  pleased  at  the  receipt  of  your  letter 
and  at  the  promise  (this  day  fulfilled)  of  following  it  up  with  the  coins. 

1  For  an  accurate  account  of  Asoka,  whose  name  is  not  given  in  the 
Encyclopaedias,  see  a  little  hook  on  Buddhism,  hy  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids. 


330  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1837. 

They  are  pure  specimens — but  not  better  or  so  good  as  those  taken 
home  by  Mr.  Stewart,  if  I  may  believe  his  plate.  One  enables  me  to 
correct  a  reading.  .  .  .  My  other  discovery  now  engrosses  my  attention,  it 
is  so  fraught  with  consequences  in  every  direction.  Without  facsimiles 
it  would  be  impossible  to  venture  on  a  correct  reading — and  I  therefore 
leave  all  these  and  the  Girnar  inscriptions  to  your  and  Mr.  Wathen's  great 
zeal  and  knowledge.  Mr.  Stevenson  was  wrong  in  many  letters — but 
I  long  since  felt  certain  of  almost  all  but  this.  ...  I  should  like  much 
to  know  the  degree  of  authenticity  attachable  to  your  version  of  the 
Goojarat  inscription.  A  facsimile  would  be  invaluable  at  this  moment ; 
there  are  so  many  evidently  bad  copyings  that  I  dare  not  trust  myself 
with  it,  moreover  there  are  some  letters  not  found  in  the  Delhi  pillar. 
In  other  respects  the  Goojaratee  version  is  much  more  orthographi- 
cally  correct  than  the  Delhi. 

"In  many  other  places  your  Pali  is  much  more  pure  than  our 
Magadha  ;  but  I  am  anticipating  what  I  hope  to  give  you  in  a  month 
in  print.  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  exchange  periodicals,  and  the  post- 
office  will  soon  enable  us  to  do  so  with  little  cost.  Pray  let  Mr.  Wathen 
read  this  as  my  time  is  of  the  (illegible).  Now  we  may  commence  upon 
the  palaeography  of  India — before  it  would  have  been  premature  ;  we 
require  your  cave  variation  of  our  oldest  standard.  Thank  Mulla  Firuz, 
only  in  my  name,  for  his  great  kindness  in  sending  on  his  two  coins 
which  I  will  faithfully  return  by  and  bye.  I  should  like  to  engrave  them 
first.  Believe  me,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  sincerely,  J.  PKINSEP." 

PART  OF  DR.  WILSON'S  JOURNAL. 

"  3d  January. — We  arrived  at  Karli  in  the  morning ;  and  after 
breakfast  we  proceeded  to  the  Buddh  caves,  in  which  we  spent  the 
greater  part  of  the  day.  We  succeeded  in  taking  a  facsimile  on  cloth 
of  more  than  half  the  inscriptions.  Our  success  was  very  gratifying, 
particularly  as  no  copy  of  them  which  I  have  yet  seen  is  tolerably  cor- 
rect. I  have  no  doubt  of  my  ability  to  read  them  by  the  help  of  Mr. 
Prinsep's  alphabet.  His  conjectural  emendment  of  the  copy  of  that 
on  the  large  outer  pillar  furnished  by  Lieutenant  Jacob  to  my  friend 
Dr.  Stevenson  I  found  to  be  correct,  the  last  word  terminating  with  an 
n  or  j_,  instead  of  J|,  as  printed  in  the  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society. 
The  point  marking  the  am,  or  termination  of  the  neuter  gender,  I 
also  found  in  its  place,  making  the  final  word  very  plainly  to  be  ddnam. 

"  The  Brahmans,  who  hold  possession  of  the  little  temple  of  Bhavani 
lately  erected  near  the  mouth  of  the  caves,  seemed  to  take  a  particular 


1837.]  DECIPHERS  THE  KARLI  INSCRIPTIONS.  331 

interest  in  all  that  was  going  on.  When  I  read  to  them  the  inscription 
now  quoted,  they  said  to  one  another,  '  So  they  are  not  the  work  of  the 
Panda vas  ? '  '  The  Pandavas  ! '  said  I,  '  Did  it  never  strike  you  before 
that  these  caves  had  no  connection  with  Hindooism  ? '  They  confessed 
that  they  had  long  had  strong  suspicions  of  their  not  having  a  Hindoo 
origin.  I  got  them,  and  several  Kunbees  (peasants)  who  came  to  see  the 
caves,  to  sit  down  and  listen,  when  I  discoursed  to  them  on  the  errors 
both  of  the  Buddhas  and  Brahmans,  and  unfolded  to  them  the  religion  of 
Christ  which,  while  it  commends  itself  to  the  most  enlightened  intellect, 
speaks  both  peace  to  the  conscience  and  purity  to  the  heart.  They 
heard  me  most  attentively,  and  not  with  the  less  interest  that  they  found 
their  own  systems  correctly  stated,  at  the  same  time  that  they  ^ were 
decidedly  condemned.  I  gave  them  a  few  little  books  calculated  to 
explain  and  enforce  the  new  doctrine  which  had  been  brought  before 
their  notice,  which  they  very  readily  received. 

"  The  letters  which  Dr.  Stevenson  supposed  to  be  numerals  repre- 
senting the  date  of  the  excavations  are  rather  indistinct,  but  not  of  the 
form  which  he  supposed.  I  hope  to-morrow  to  be  able  to  take  a  fac- 
simile of  the  part  of  the  inscription  which  contains  them." 

In  the  address  of  the  Bombay  Asiatic  Society  to  Dr. 
Wilson,  before  his  departure  for  Syria,  he  was  thanked  by  his 
colleagues  "  for  facsimile  inscriptions  on  the  Cave  Temples  at 
Karli,  of  which,  aided  by  Prinsep's  monumental  alphabet,  it 
was  reserved  for  your  learned  associate  Dr.  Stevenson  and  your- 
self, to  be  the  first  decipherers."  As  Sir  William  Jones  was 
the  first  to  introduce  into  the  chaos  of  Hindoo  literature  and 
history  the  magical  but  very  real  drop  of  chronological  truth 
which  developed  from  the  Chandragupta  of  the  Mudra 
Kakshasa,  the  Sandrocuptos  of  Athenaeus,  or  Sandracottus  of 
Arrian,so  Dr.  Wilson  brought  to  light  the  inscriptions,  in  which 
the  greater  grandson  of  Chandragupta  had  engraved  on  the 
rock,  twenty  centuries  before,  the  names  of  the  successors  of 
Alexander  in  Egypt  and  the  East.  The  Girnar  rock  must 
rank  in  historical  literature  with  the  Eosetta  stone,  the 
the  Behistun  inscription,  and  the  Accadian  brick-libraries  of 
Assyria.  Apart  from  that,  in  purely  Indian  literature  it 
reveals  to  us,  in  letters  as  real  and  vivid  as  the  printed  page, 


332 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1838. 


the  character  of  the  great  and  good  Asoka,  who,  when  ruling 
over  Ihe  most  extensive  empire  Hindooism  ever  saw,  from 
the  eastern  uplands  of  Behar  to  the  Indian  Ocean,  and 
from  the  snows  of  Himalaya  to  the  coasts  of  Malabar,  Coro- 
mandel,  and  Ceylon,  was  driven  by  disgust  at  the  sacerdotal 
tyranny  of  the  Brahmans  to  profess  and  to  propagate  Budd- 
hism in  the  eleventh  year  of  his  reign.  Tolerant  and  en- 
lightened, his  edicts  alone,  as  we  find  them  graven  on  the 
rocks  from  Girnar  to  Cuttack  and  the  Punjab,  justify  the 
title,  happily  given  to  the  Constantine  of  Buddhism  by  Pro- 
fessor Kern,  of  Asoka  the  Humane. 

From  the  time  that  he  was  nominated  President  of  the 
Bombay  Asiatic  Society,  Dr.  Wilson  kept  up  a  somewhat  con- 
stant correspondence  with  the  scholars  of  France  and  Ger- 
many, who  looked  to  him  in  India  for  new  facts  and  materials. 
Greatest  of  them  all  in  France,  if  not  throughout  Europe, 
was  the  accomplished  and  accurate  Eugene  Burnouf,  Profes- 
sor of  Sanscrit  in  the  College  de  France,  who  for  the  first 
half  of  this  century  was  without  a  rival  in  the  department  of 
Zand.  He  was  the  friend,  also,  of  Mr.  Brian  Hodgson. 

Dr.  WILSON  to  Professor  E.  BURNOUF. 

"Bombay,  21st  May  1838. — MY  DEAR  SIR. — I  intended  long  ere 
now  to  have  personally  acknowledged  your  very  highly  valued  letter  of 
the  13th  October  1836,  which  I  had  the  pleasure  of  duly  receiving.  I 
took  the  liberty  of  communicating  its  substance  to  our  Asiatic  Society 
previous  to  proposing  you  as  an  honorary  member  of  our  body,  and  it 
afforded  the  members  present  the  highest  satisfaction.  In  this  quarter 
the  highest  respect  is  entertained  for  your  distinguished  talents  and 
accomplishments,  and  your  splendid  literary  labours  ;  and  we  felt 
that  we  were  taking  honour  to  ourselves,  and  not  dispensing  it  to  another, 
when  we  invited  you  to  allow  yourself  to  be  associated  with  our 
fraternity. 

"  Mr.  Mdnakji  Kharshedji  (who,  I  am  happy  to  state,  has  now  received 
a  respectable  situation  from  the  Government)  conversed  with  me  re- 
specting the  oriental  works  which  you  wished  to  procure  ;  and  I  gave 
him  the  best  advice  in  my  power.  I  got  six  copies  put  up  for  you  of 


1838.]  LETTEK  TO  BURNOUF.  333 

the  specimen  of  the  Rig-Veda,  translated  by  my  friend  Dr.  Stevenson 
and  a  native  pundit,  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  owing  to  some  mistake 
they  have  not  yet  left  Bombay.  They  shall  be  forwarded  to  you  by  the 
first  opportunity.  The  translation,  you  will  see,  is  founded  on  the 
Bhashya,  more  than  on  the  text  of  the  Veda  ;  and  on  this  account,  as 
well  as  the  haste  in  its  preparation,  it  requires  many  allowances.  We 
are  always  here  too  much  dependent  on  native  aid  ;  and  there  is  often 
as  much  blame  to  be  attached  for  our  too  blind  reliance  upon  it  as 
regret  to  be  cherished  for  your  absolute  want  of  it  in  Europe. 

"  Your  progress  with  the  Bhdgavata  is  most  encouraging.  I  trust 
that  you  will  soon  have  the  pleasure  of  laying  it  before  the  public.  It 
will,  I  doubt  not,  get  much  beyond  the  circle  of  the  orientalists,  and  do 
much  to  inform  the  mind  of  Europe  on  practical  Hindooism,  which  is 
so  little  understood*  I  am  at  present  perusing  your  comment  on  the 
Yapna.  It  is  a  most  learned  and  elaborate  work.  Perhaps  you  have 
treated  Anquetil  du  Perron's  version  with  too  much  respect.  Had  you 
given  as  the  basis  of  your  remarks  an  original  translation,  which  you 
are  so  competent  to  do,  and  fortified  it  with  critical  notes  where  neces- 
sary, your  labour  would  have  been  much  abridged  ;  this  I  mention  with 
all  deference.  You  will,  I  suppose,  close  with  a  translation.  I  have 
got  from  my  bookseller  the  first  two  parts  of  your  work  ;  and  I  shall 
get  from  him  those  which  may  follow.  Mulla  Rustamji,  the  successor 
of  Mulla  Firuz,  the  author  of  the  George-Namdh  desires  me  to  say  that 
he  will  be  happy  to  allow  you  to  have  copies  of  the  Persian  or  Goojar- 
atee  translations,  etc.,  with  comment  of  the  Tagna  of  Framji  Aspan- 
diarji.  He  calculates  the  price  of  transcription  at  .£25.  If  you  have 
not  already  a  copy  of  the  work  it  will  be  very  serviceable  to  you. 
The  translations  are  interlinear  with  the  original  and  verbal.  Similar 
translations  of  the  other  religious  works  of  the  Parsees  can  be  procured. 

"  As  you  have  done  so  much  to  bring  the  Pali  into  notice,  you 
will  be  greatly  gratified  at  the  results  of  the  Honourable  Mr.  Tumour's 
researches,  and  Mr.  Prinsep's  most  fortunate  discovery  of  the  monu- 
mental alphabet.  The  latter  I  am  applying  to  the  Karli  inscriptions. 
Mr.  Prinsep,  I  suppose,  will  have  informed  you  as  to  his  finding  the 
name  of  Antiochus,  etc.,  on  the  Girnar  inscriptions  which  I  visited 
three  years  ago. 

"  I  shall  be  delighted  to  be  called  upon  to  make  any  exertions  in 
aid  of  your  inquiries  in  this  country.  I  have  such  an  estimate  of  their 
importance  as  connected  with  the  work  in  which  I  seek  to  be  engaged, 
— the  instruction  of  the  Eastern  mind  in  the  glorious  truths  of  Heaven's 
own  revelation,  that  I  shall  view  any  little  service  which  I  can  render 


334  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1838. 

to  you  or  your  associates  as  a  privilege. — With  the  highest  respect  and 
most  sincere  esteem,  I  am,  most  truly  yours,       JOHN  WILSON,  D.D." 

Prof.  BTJRNOUF  to  Dr.  WILSON. 

"  PARIS,  13  Juillet  1838. — MONSIEUR. — Jai  re§u  avec  une  bien  vive 
satisfaction  la  lettre  en  date  de  Mai  1838,  que  vous  m'avez  fait 
1'honneur  de  m'adresser.  Elle  est  pleine  des  marques  d'une  bienveill- 
ance  qui  m'  est  tres  precieuse  de  la  part  d'un  homme  de  votre  caractere 
et  de  votre  position.  Mon  plus  vif  desir  est  de  chercher  a  meriter  1'estime 
des  homines  qui  aiment  la  verite,  et  qui  voient  dans  la  science  non 
pas  un  vain  exercise  de  1'esprit,  mais  un  moyen  de  connaitre  mieux 
Fhomme  pour  1'elever  par  Finstruction  la  ou  1'appellent  des  grandes 
destinees. 

"  Vous  apprendrez  sans  doute  avec  beaucoup  de  peine  la  perte  que 
notre  Socie'te  vient  de  faire  dans  la  personne  de  M.  Jacquet,  jeune 
homme  de  grande  esperance,  qui  vient  de  mourir  le  8  Juillet  dernier,  a 
Tage  de  28  ans.  Ce  jeune  homme,  qui  vous  £tait  sans  doute  connu  de 
nom,  s'occupait  avec  succes  de  1' explication  des  medailles  et  des  inscrip- 
tions indiennes.  J'etais  fort  intimement  lie  avec  lui,  et  dans  le  vaste 
domaine  qu'onere  1'etude  de  1'Inde,  nous  avions  fait  un  partage  d'amis, 
il  avait  pris  les  monuments  figures  et  epigraphiques,  tandis  que  je  m'etais 
livre  a  la  lecture  des  textes.  II  est  mort  au  milieu  des  medailles  qui 
M.  Court  vient  d'envoyer  en  France. 

"  Je  n'ai  pas  recu  de  lettre  de  M.  Prinsep  qui  me  fasse  connaitre 
le  fait  curieux  et  capital  de  la  lecture  du  nom  d'Antiochus,  sur  le  rocher 
de  Girnar.  Mais  je  le  crois  bien  possible  non  seulement  a  cause  de  la  rare 
sagacite  dont  est  doue  M.  Prinsep,  mais  encore  a  cause  de  la  richesse 
des  documents  contenus  dans  ces  anciens  textes.  Je  crois  que  Jacquet  avait 
dans  ses  papiers,  un  fort  beau  facsimile  sur  plusieurs  feuilles  de  1'inscrip- 
tion  de  Girnar.  Lorsque  la  vente  de  sa  bibliotheque  aura  lieu,  je  ferai  tous 
mes  efforts  pour  acquerir  ce  monument  que  je  desireraisvivement  posseder. 

"  Je  serais  egalement  tres  empresse  de  faire  1'acquisition  d'un\  exem- 
plaire  du  Yag na  traduit  en  Guzarati  et  en  Persan.  Mais  la  somme  de 
,£25  que  demandent  les  copistes  parses  pour  le  seul  ouvrage,  me  parait 
beaucoup  trop  considerable,  du  moins  elle  depasse  de  beaucoup  mes 
moyens.  Ainsi  je  renonce  a  cette  acquisition.  11  me  semblait  que 
pour  29  louis  on  aurait  pu  se  procurer  la  copie  de  tout  ce  qui  existe  de 
Zend.  Je  trouve  en  general  qui  les  frais  de  copie  sont  beaucoup  moins 
eleves  a  Benares  que  dans  1'ouest  de  1'Inde. 

"  Je  vais,  cet  automne,  commencer  1'impression  de  ma  traduction  du 
Bhdg.  Purdna.  Je  compets  qu'un  volume  (le  ler)  pourra  etre  termine 


1840.]  BURNOUF'S  REPLIES.  335 

vers  la  fin  de  1839,  a  cause  de  1'inexperience  des  ouvriers  imprimeurs 
qui  ne  sont  par  tres  habituees  encore  a  composer  du  Sanscrit. 

"  Je  recevrai  avec  une  bien  grande  satisfaction  les  six  exemplaires  du 
Rig-  Veda  de  M.  Stevenson,  que  vous  voulez  bien  m'adresser.  Je  regrette 
seulement  qui  vous  ne  m'ayez  pas  indique"  a  Londres  la  personne  a  la 
quelle  je  doit  payer  le  montant  de  cette  acquisition.  Peutetre  le  paquet 
sera-t-il  accompagne  d'une  note  relative  a  ce  point.  Au  reste  j'ai  deja 
d'avance  distribue  ces  six  exemplaires  entre  mes  amis. 

"  Adieu,  Monsieur,  croyez  bien  qui  j'apprecie  hautement  1'honneur 
que  m'a  fait  votre  Societe  de  m'admettre  dans  son  sein,  je  lui  en  ai  deja 
exprime"  ma  vive  gratitude  par  une  lettre.  Je  serai  bien  heureux  si 
vos  importantes  occupations  vous  laissent  de  temps  en  temps  quelques 
moments  de  loisir  pour  me  donner  des  nouvelles  indiennes.  Agreez 
Monsieur  1'assurance  de  tous  mes  sentiments  respectueux. 

"  EUG.  BURNOUF." 

"  MONSIEUR  ET  RESPECTABLE  AMI. — Je  vous  prie  de  vouloir  bien 
accepter  pour  vous  et  offrir  de  ma  part  a  la  savante  compagnie  dont 
vous  etes  le  digne  chef,  le  ler  volume  de  ma  traduction  du  Bhdgavata 
Purdna.  Vos  conseils,  et  1'inter^t  que  vous  avez  publiquement  exprime 
pour  une  traduction  Europe"enne  de  ce  poeme  estim6  dans  1'Inde,  ont  cer- 
tainement  beaucoup  agi  sur  la  determination  que  j'ai  prise  d'en  continuer 
la  publication.  J'espef  e  que  d'autres  Etudes  non  moins  interessantes  ne 
me  detourneront  pas  et  que  je  pourrai  continuer  un  travail  qui  doit 
m'interesser,  puis  qu'il  a  quelque  prix  aux  yeux  d'un  homme  aussi 
eclaire  et  aussi  savant  que  vous.  Veuillez  recevoir  ce  travail  avec  indul- 
gence et  voir  dans  rhommage  que  je  vous  en  fais,  la  preuve  des  senti- 
ments de  haute  estime  dont  je  suis  heureux  depouvoir  vous  renouveller 
1'expression.  Agreez,  Monsieur  et  respectable  ami,  I'assurance  de  mon 
entier  devouement,  votre  tres  humble  serviteur,  EUG.  BURNOUF. 

"25  /.  1840." 

In  1840  another  French  scholar,  M.  Theodore  Pavie,  ot 
L'Ecole  des  Langues  Orientales  in  Paris,  visited  Bombay, 
passing  on  thence  to  Madras  and  Calcutta,  from  which,  in 
imperfect  English,  he  addressed  to  Dr.  Wilson  a  letter  of  gra- 
titude for  learned  counsel  and  the  gift  of  a  MS.  of  one  of 
Kalidasa's  dramas.  About  the  same  time,  according  to  a 
letter  with  incomplete  date,  Mr.  Tumour,  the  greatest  Pali 
scholar  in  the  East,  and  afterwards  translator  of  the  Maha- 


336  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1841. 

wanso,  "The  Genealogy  of  the  Great,"  was  introduced  to  Dr. 
Wilson.  They  must  have  had  much  to  talk  of,  for  it  was 
Tumour  who  first  identified  the  Priyadasi  of  the  Edicts  with 
Asoka,  by  "throwing  open  the  hitherto  sealed  page  of  the 
Buddhist  historian  to  the  development  of  Indian  monuments 
and  Puranic  records,"  as  Prinsep  expressed  it. 

No  Government,  not  even  that  of  the  country  which 
rules  India,  has  shown  so  enlightened  an'  interest  in  its 
literature  and  religions  as  that  of  Denmark.  It  was  the 
first  to  send  Protestant  missionaries  to  the  Hindoos,  the  first 
to  protect  the  English  missionaries  whom  the  East  India 
Company  persecuted  at  the  end  of  last  century,  and  the  first 
to  despatch  its  scholars  to  the  East.  Thus  Rask  had  taken 
from  Bombay  the  rich  collection  of  MSS.,  Zand  and  Pahlavi, 
which  he  deposited  in  Copenhagen.  And  in  1841,  after  master- 
ing these,  Professor  Westergaard  prepared  himself  for  his 
critical  edition  of  the  Zand-avasta  by  visiting  Bombay 
where  he  was  Dr.  Wilson's  guest,  and  exploring  both  Western 
India  and  Persia  in  a  literary  sense. 

Prof.  WESTERGAARD  to  Dr.  WILSON. 

"  BROACH,  8tk  February  1841. — MY  DEAR  DR.  WILSON. — So  far  am 
I  come  on  my  journey,  and  that  is  shortly  told.  I  stayed  at  Satara 
three  days,  at  Colonel  Ovans',  who  received  me  with  the  greatest  hospi- 
tality, and  showed  me  all  things  worth  seeing  —  the  Raja  and  his 
palace,  etc.  If  you  have  not  already  seen  it  I  advise  you  to  see  a  curious 
cave  excavation  under  the  surface  of  the  earth,  about  two  miles  from 
Poona.  At  Junir  I  took  copies  of  all  the  inscriptions  except  one,  which 
was  too  much  defaced.  At  Nasik  I  found  a  Sanscrit  inscription  in 
the  old  Cave  character,  and  the  king,  a  son  of  a  Patrassa,  is  praised  for 
having  bestowed  300,000  cows  and  26  villages  to  the  Brahmans.  All 
the  sculptures  were  Jain.  Being  ill  there  I  was  afraid  for  crossing 
the  jungle,  therefore  I  went  over  Malligaum  Novapoor  to  Surat ;  and 
I  am  sorry  not  to  have  seen  your  Parsee  friend  at  Daman.  At  Surat 
there  were  very  few  books,  and  still  less  knowledge  amongst  the  Parsees. 
I  asked  them  about  the  passage  in  the  B.  Fargard  about  abortion  or 
infanticide,  but  they  did  only  translate  for  me  the  Persian  translation." 

"  EDUR,  25^  May  1842. — I  was  quite  delighted  with  the  whole  of 


1842.]  LETTEK  FROM  WESTERGAAKD.  337 

Abu.  I  spent  there  a  week,  and  did  enjoy  it  very  much  to  my  heart's 
content.  The  temples  of  Dilwara  or  Devalvara  are  worth  seeing,  and 
even  a  journey  of  a  thousand  miles  is  not  too  long  for  such  a  view. 
What  is  the  etymology  of  the  name  Abu  ?  and  why  is  here  a  temple 
and  dharmsala  for  Vasishtra  Muni  1  Was  this  the  place  where  he  lived, 
and  the  scene  of  the  fiery  struggle  between  him  and  Arivamitra — 
between  the  clergy  and  the  king  ?  I  have  no  Ramayana  at  hand,  so  I 
cannot  decide  it  ;  but  being  too  on  the  frontier  of  India,  it  is  perhaps 
not  unlikely.  There  i«  no  date  in  all  the  temples  earlier  than  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  century,  Samvat  (era)  ;  but  it  must  have  been  considered  a 
holy  place,  otherwise  the  wealthy  Banyans  would  not  have  chosen  it 
for  building  such  magnificent  temples.  But  we  will  talk  this  matter 
over.  I  hope,  if  you  should  not  be  at  Bombay,  you  will  allow  me  to 
put  up  in  one  of  your  houses,  either  at  Ambrolie  or  Malabar  Hill. 

"  What  we  want  is  a  critical  edition  of  the  whole  Zand  and  Pahlavi 
literature,  on  the  authority  of  the  oldest  and  best  MSS.  existing,  together 
with  grammar  and  dictionary  of  the  languages  ;  first,  when  that  is  done, 
will  it  be  possible  to  give  a  good  and  correct  translation  of  the  texts, 
either  it  be  in  English  or  any  other  language.  The  first  I  intend  to 
do  when  I  should  return  to  Copenhagen,  where  we  have  at  least  the 
oldest  Zand  MSS.,  two  of  them  more  than  500  years  old.  At  any  rate 
I  would  beg  you  to  give  the  texts  in  the  old  Zand  character." 

Colonel  Dickinson,  one  of  his  colleagues  in  the  Asiatic 
Society,  and  a  valued  servant  of  the  State,  offered  generous  aid 
to  Dr.  Wilson  in  the  purchase  of  Oriental  MSS.,  while  he  him- 
self, in  letters  to  his  Edinburgh  publisher  and  to  Dr.  Brunton, 
was  planning  new  literary  undertakings  in  aid  of  or  arising 
out  of  his  missionary  work.  These  were — '  The  Conversion  of 
India  and  the  Means  of  its  Accomplishment;'  'The  Tribes  of 
Western  India,  with  Notices  of  Missionary  Labour ;'  '  Poetical 
Pieces  by  Anne  Bayne,  with  a  Biographical  Sketch  of  the 
Author;'  'Memoir  of  E.  C.  Money,  Esq.'  To  Dr.  Brunton 
he  thus  wrote  on  19th  July  1842,  of  a  scheme  afterwards 
taken  up  by  English  biblical  scholars  and  travellers : — "  I 
have  long  been  talking  to  our  friends  here  about  the  propriety 
of  our  attempting  to  found  in  Britain  a  society  whose  express 
object  shall  be  to  collect  Oriental  illustrations  of  the  Scrip- 

z 


338  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1842. 

tures,  and  to  render  available  to  Europeans  the  treasures  of 
Church  History  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  Syriac,  Arme- 
nian, and  other  Eastern  languages.  Had  leisure  permitted 
me,  you  might  ere  this  have  received  from  me  a  short  memoir 
on  the  subject,  directing  your  attention  to  what  has  occurred 
respecting  it,  and  offering  you  a  few  remarks  on  the  intima- 
tions of  an  international  communication  between  the  Jews 
and  ancient  Persians,  which  are  contained  in  the  writings  in 
the  possession  of  the  Zoroastrians  of  India  and  of  Yezd  and 
Kerman." 

"BOMBAY,  21  ih  July  1842. — MY  DEAR  DR.  WILSON. — Viewing  as 
I  do  the  arduous  task  in  which  you  are  engaged  as  one  that  will  confer 
on  this  benighted  land  such  unspeakable  benefits,  and  not  less  hopeful 
than  yourself  that  such  an  expose  will  operate  as  a  more  powerful  lever 
than  any  which  has  been  yet  applied  for  the  subversion  of  Parsee  and 
with  it  Hindoo  idolatry,  you  will,  I  venture  to  hope,  pardon  me  for 
requesting  to  contribute  the  enclosed  towards  the  procurement  of  manu- 
scripts and  translations  in  aid  of  your  very  learned  researches,  or  for 
contributing  in  any  other  way  to  alleviate  that  not  less  bodily  than 
mental  fatigue  unavoidably  attendant,  in  this  country,  on  passing  through 
the  press  a  work  the  printing  of  which  is  attended  with  such  almost 
insurmountable  difficulties.  That  you  may,  without  further  injury  to 
your  health,  soon  bring  your  benevolent  labour  to  a  close,  is  among 
the  uppermost  wishes  of  yours  very  sincerely,  J.  DICKINSON." 

On  a  subject  nearer  Dr.  Wilson's  heart  than  even  Oriental 
MSS.  we  find  Sir  J.  Emerson  Tennent,  M.P.  for  Belfast,  and 
since  known  for  his  works  on  Ceylon,  corresponding  with  him  : 

"BEECH  PARK,  BELFAST,  October  9,  1839. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR. — You  will  allow  me  to  address  you  so,  because, 
although  personally  unknown  to  you,  you  are  not  by  reputation  unknown 
to  me;  and  the  object  which  now  serves  as  my  introduction  will,  I 
trust,  lead  to  a  more  matured  acquaintance.  The  few  '  superficial 
inches '  of  a  letter  to  India  forbid  a  long  preface,  and  I  must  at  once 
open  my  subject.  As  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  I  have 
repeatedly  presented  petitions  praying  for  the  exemption  of  British 
soldiers  from  taking  a  part  in  the  idolatrous  ceremonies  of  India,  and 
also  others  calling  on  the  British  Legislature,  if  not  to  suppress  at  least 


1842.]  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY  AND  IDOLATRY.  339 

to  withdraw  its  countenance  and  encouragement,  its  pecuniary  support 
or  its  official  patronage  from  them.  .  .  .  These  are  considerations  which, 
apart  from  my  individual  responsibility  as  a  man,  enlist  all  my  feelings 
as  a  legislator,  and  have  brought  me  to  the  resolution,  early  in  the 
next  session  of  Parliament,  to  collect  what  support  I  may  around  me, 
and  to  break  ground  in  this  momentous  question  by  a  motion  to  put 
an  end  to  this  system.  By  a  recent  order  of  the  Commander-in-Chief, 
Roman  Catholic  soldiers  are  specially  exempted  from  attendance  on 
Protestant  worship  in  England,  and  yet  the  same  soldier  or  his  Pro- 
testant fellow  would  be  compelled  to  unite  in  the  worship  of  the  Host 
at  Malta,  or  throw  the  cocoa-nut  in  Hindoostan  !  Now  only  let  us 
extend  the  principle  \  I  ask  not  to  proselytise  or  to  coerce,  but  to  cease 
to  countenance  and  to  maintain  idolatry.  But  I  Want  aid  from  you. 
I  have  lately  been  spending  a  few  days  near  two  of  my  earliest  and 
dearest  friends  in  the  world — Mrs.  R.  C.  Money  and  Mrs.  Webb — and 
they  have  both  begged  me  to  write  to  you  on  the  subject.  I  want 
'materials,  and  facts,  and  details,  and  they  tell  me  you  can  send  me 
abundance.  May  I  beg  of  you  to  do  so  ? " 

"BOMBAY,  31st  December  1839. 

"MY  DEAR  SIR. — I  have  seldom  received  a  letter  "from  Europe 
which  has  afforded  me  more  intense  delight  than  yours  of  the  9th 
October,  which  has  lately  come  into  my  hands.  The  subject  to  which 
it  refers  is  one  connected  with  which  my  soul  has  often  been  agonised 
to  a  degree  which  I  cannot  express  ;  and  it  rejoices  my  heart  to  learn 
that  you  are  about  to  devote  to  it  your  earnest  attention  and  untiring 
exertion.  You  cannot  consecrate  your  admired  talents  and  eloquence 
to  a  more  important  cause,  for  it  is  directly  connected  with  stopping 
the  course  of  overwhelming  iniquity,  displaying  the  glory  and  grace  of 
Jehovah,  and  advancing  the  moral  regeneration  of  the  most  important 
country  in  the  world  committed  to  the  sovereignty  of  our  Christian 
nation  by  the  most  wonderful  providences  which  the  page  of  history 
can  unfold.  It  is  not,  as  it  respects  the  guilt  to  be  removed,  the 
evil  to  be  prevented,  or  the  good  to  be  effected,  secondary  to  the 
abolition  of  the  horrid  trade  in  the  sinews,  and  the  flesh,  and  the  bones 
of  the  children  of  Africa.  May  God  himself  direct  you  and  all  your 
coadjutors ;  and  may  we  see  a  speedy,  a  glorious,  and  a  complete 
victory  !  I  am  sorry  that  the  short  few  minutes  which  intervene 
between  the  moment  of  my  thus  taking  up  the  pen  and  the  departure 
of  the  steamer  prevent  me  from  giving  that  suitable  reply  to  your 
communication  which,  if  God  spare  me,  shall  not  long  be  wanting.  I 


340  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1842. 

must  content  myself  by  simply  throwing  out  a  few  hints,  and  these  in 
a  very  abrupt  form  : — 

"  I.  You  will  find  a  good  deal  of  information  on  the  subject,  particu- 
larly as  connected  with  the  Madras  Presidency,  in  a  pamphlet  entitled 
*  The  Connection  of  the  East  India  Company's  Government  with  the 
Superstitious  and  Idolatrous  Customs  and  Bites  of  the  Natives  of  India,' 
published  by  Hatchard  and  Son,  Piccadilly.  The  compiler,  J.  M. 
Strachan,  Esq.,  late  of  the  Madras  Civil  Service  ;  Mr.  Poynder,  of  whom 
you  must  often  have  heard  ;  J.  T.  Thomas,  Esq.,  Brunswick  Terrace, 
Brighton  ;  and  Peter  Cator,  Esq.,  will  be  able  and  willing  to  give  you 
much  important  information  connected  with  the  proceedings  in  the 
south  of  India.  I  have  just  put  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Murray,  one 
of  our  merchants,  who  leaves  Bombay  by  the  steamer  of  this  day, 
several  numbers  of  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator,  which  I  edit,  con- 
taining informal  statements  of  the  doings  in  other  parts  of  India. 
My  first  leisure  hour  will  be  devoted  to  the  arrangement  and  exposi- 
tion of  the  unpublished  documents  which  are  in  my  possession ;  and 
the  result  will  be  communicated  to  you  next  month. 

"II.  In  reading  on  the  general  subject  of  the  countenance  and 
support  of  idolatry,  and  degradation  of  Christianity  in  India,  it  may 
be  of  use  to  you,  for  the  sake  of  arrangement  in  your  own  mind,  to 
have  before  you  the  following  Note — comprehending  all  the  evils  of 
which  I  know — which  I  composed  a  few  months  ago  : — 

"We  must  never  rest  satisfied  till  the  Government — 1.  Cease  to 
administer  to  the  chartered  endowments  of  the  temples.  2.  Decline  to 
continue  such  grants  of  the  native  princes  as  were  merely  discretional 
on  their  part,  or  ready  to  be  recalled  whenever  they  might  see  cause. 
3.  Withdraw  its  own  grants  which  are  legally  recoverable,  and  cease 
to  levy  taxes  on  every  village,  as  is  done  throughout  the  Dekhan,  for 
the  support  of  the  temples.  4.  Decline  all  official  management  of  the 
temples,  either  by  Native  or  European  functionaries.  5.  Forbid  the 
official  interference  of  its  officers  in  the  direction  of  the  festivals.  6. 
Cease  to  honour  the  heathen  and  Muhammadan  festivals  with  honorary 
processions  and  salutes.  7.  Cease  to  employ  or  pay  the  Brahmans  to 
make  incantations  for  rain  and  fair  weather.  8.  Destroy  the  pilgrim- 
tax.  9.  Forbid  the  compulsory  dragging  of  the  idol-cars.  10.  Forbid 
the  consecration  of  the  public  records  to  ?Ganesh  and  the  inscription  to 
his  honour  on  official  documents  issued  by  its  own  authority.  11. 
Exclude  from  the  courts  of  justice  all  idolatrous  cases  in  which  civil 
rights  are  not  concerned.  12.  Cease  to  degrade  certain  castes  by 
excluding  them  from  particular  offices  and  benefits  not  connected  with 


1842.]          CONSULTED  BY  CHIEF  JUSTICE  ON  PARSEE  LAW.        341 

religion.  1 3.  Cease  to  pension  Brahmans,  Moollahs,  and  others,  because 
of  their  connection  with  the  heathen  and  Muhammadan  priesthood. 
14.  Abolish  heathen  oaths  in  courts  of  justice,  and  adopt  a  form  of 
swearing  to  which  none  can  object.  15.  Withhold  support  from  all 
heathen  and  Muhammadan  schools  and  colleges. 

"  III.  Your  motion  in  Parliament,  I  think,  should  not  be  to  pro- 
duce this  and  that  despatch  of  the  Directors,  but  to  appoint  a  Select 
Committee  to  investigate  the  whole  extent  of  the  evil,  by  calling  for 
documents,  instituting  correspondence,  and  examining  gentlemen  from 
India.  JOHN  WILSON." 

In  1836  there  seems  to  have  been  made  to  Dr.  Wilson 
the  first  of  those  references  by  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  as  well  as  the  Executive  Government,  which  after- 
wards became  so  frequent  and  honourable  to  both,  as  well  as 
conducive  to  the  good  administration  of  the  country.  The 
Parsees  in  India  believe  that,  on  their  expatriation,  their 
ancient  code  of  laws  as  well  as  their  other  religious  books 
were  lost.  They  were  governed  internally  by  their  own 
Punchayat,  under  rules  recognised  by  the  Government 
in  1778,  which  gave  that  committee  the  power  of  beating 
offenders  with  the  shoe.  But  as  sectarian  divisions  spread, 
and  as  civil  suits  involving  religious  questions  came  before 
the  Supreme  Court,  the  necessity  for  legislation  by  the  British 
Government  became  apparent.  Not  till  1865  could  all  parties 
agree  to  such  a  civil  code  of  marriage,  divorce,  and  inheritance 
at  least  as  would  be  satisfactory.  In  one  of  the  numerous 
disputes  in  1835  Dr.  Wilson's  knowledge  of  the  Parsee 
literature  and  customs  was  appealed  to  by  the  Chief  Justice, 
who  directed  the  thanks  of  the  Court  to  be  conveyed  to  him 
"  for  the  clear,  concise,  and  lucid  manner  in  which  you  have 
framed  your  answers  to  the  queries  submitted  to  you." 

"BOMBAY,  llth  February  1836. —  .  .  .  .  The  only  book  of 
authority  among  the  Parsees  which  refers  either  to  morality  or  municipal 
law  is  the  Vandiddd  Sdd6,  alleged  to  be  a  fragment  of  the  writings  of 
Zoroaster.  It  was  almost  a  dead  letter  with  the  Parsees  for  a  long  time 
after  their  arrival  in  India  ;  and  it  contains  no  aphorisms  on  the  subject 


342  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1842. 

of  adoption.  There  are  no  written  laws  of  authority  among  the  Parsees 
respecting  adoption.  Their  traditions,  which  are  their  guide,  are  founded 
partly  on  the  Muhammadan  law  and  partly  on  the  Hindoo  law.  Dhar- 
maputra  and  Palak  beta  are  equivalent  in  conventional  use,  though 
not  in  etymology.  They  both  designate  an  adopted  son.  There  is  no 
prescribed  form  of  adoption  recognised  among  the  Parsees.  Adoption 
invariably  originates  in  a  religious  motive.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
adopted  son  to  perform  the  Krija  or  funeral  ceremonies  of  him  who 
has  adopted  him.  It  is  with  a  reference  to  the  discharge  of  this  duty 
that  he  is  adopted.  The  adopted  son  stands  on  the  same  footing  with 
regard  to  property  as  the  only  son  of  a  family.  I  have  considerable 
confidence  in  the  accuracy  of  these  statements.  As  I  am  entirely 
ignorant  of  the  object  of  the  Chief  Justice  in  the  inquiries  which  he  has 
made,  I  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  framed  my  replies  with  a  view  to 
meet  any  existing  practical  case.  It  will  afford  me  much  pleasure  to 
be  of  the  slightest  service  to  the  dispensers  of  justice  in  throwing  light 
on  the  native  customs  in  the  country.  JOHN  WILSON." 

The  close  of  1842  saw  the  fruit  of  Dr.  Wilson's  researches 
in  the  publication  of  his  greatest  work,  The  Parsi  Religion. 
He  now  began  to  prepare  for  his  homeward  tour ;  for  new  duty 
in  the  midst  of  holiday  recreation.  We  may  here,  most  appro- 
priately, give  some  of  the  letters  of  congratulation  addressed 
to  him  by  the  greatest  Orientalists  of  the  day.  The  learned 
and  amiable  William  Erskine,  who  had  translated  the  Memoirs 
of  the  JjJmperor  Haber,  and  was  engaged  on  that  History  of  the 
House  of  Taimur  which  he  was  not  to  live  to  complete,  thus 
wrote  to  him,  linking  on  the  foundation  of  the  Bombay  Literary 
Society,  in  which  the  son-in-law  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh 
took  a  part,  to  the  more  brilliant  days  of  the  Asiatic  Society  : — 

"(EDINBURGH),  13  St.  Bernard's  Crescent,  14th November  1843. — MY 
DEAR  SIR. — I  received  with  many  thanks  your  valuable  researches  and 
remarks  on  the  Parsee  religion.  Your  knowledge  of  the  Zand  and  Pah- 
la  vi,  with  their  cognate  languages,  has  enabled  you  to  do  much  more,  and 
more  correctly,  than  any  of  your  predecessors,  and  no  person  is  so  well 
qualified  to  solve  the  question  of  the  date  of  the  sacred  books  of  the 
Parsees  and  the  mode  of  their  composition.  You  speak  more  kindly 
of  my  surface  investigations  than  they  probably  deserve.  As  to  the  pro- 


1842.]  WILLIAM  EESKINE  AND  GAKCIN  DE  TASSY.  343 

duction  of  Ormuzd  by  Zerwen,  you  are  no  doubt  right.  Go  on  and 
enrich  the  world  of  letters,  while  you  think  chiefly  of  the  religious 
world  and  the  religious  benefit  of  the  human  race. 

"  One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  with  Orientals,  and  especially  with 
close  religions  like  the  Hindoo  and  Parsee,  you  have  in  a  great  measure 
overcome — that  of  making  them  appeal  to  reason  and  reasoning.  I 
consider  their  entering  the  field  of  controversy,  to  fight  foot  to  foot,  as 
the  great  difficulty  overcome.  It  has  always  hitherto  been  the  grand  ob- 
stacle. They  have  rested  in  ignorance,  regarding  even  doubt  as  criminal. 

"  The  address  of  the  Literary  Society  of  Bombay  does  honour  to 
you  and  to  them.  I  think,  at  its  first  meeting,  the  present  Governor, 
then  Lieutenant  Arthur  who  was  with  his  regiment  in  India,  was 
made  a  member,  on  the  motion  of  Lord  Valentia  then  at  Bombay. 
Believe  me,  with  much  esteem,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  very  truly, 

WM.  ERSKINE." 

"PARIS,  2  Juin  1844. — MONSIEUR  LE  REVEREND. — Je  m'impresse 
de  vous  remercier  de  la  bonte  que  vous  avez  eue  de  m'envoyer  un 
exemplaire  de  votre  admirable  ouvrage  sur  la  Religion  des  Parsees,  qui 
fait  autant  d'honneur  a  votre  savoir  qu'  a  votre  zele  pour  le  Christian- 
isme.  J'ai  aussi  regu  dans  le  temps,  le  Nos.  des  journaux  Hindoustanis, 
que  vous  avez  eue  la  bonte  d'  m'adresser  et  je  vous  en  suis  bien  oblige. 
Je  recevrai  de  meme  avec  beaucoup  de  plaisir  les  'Refutations  of  Muham- 
madism'  que  vous  avez  1'obligeance  de  m'annoncer.  J'ai  deja  I' Address 
to  Mussulmans  en  Hindoustani,  et  la  reponse.  Je  suppose  que  Alajji 
Muhammad  Kashmiri  en  est  1'auteur.  Je  tache  de  former  une  collec- 
tion complette  de  tout  ce  qui  a  paru  en  Hindoustani.  Si  vous  avez 
1'occasion  de  voir  Mr.  W.  Erskine  je  vous  prie  de  lui  presenter  mes 
salutations  respectueuses.  Je  desirerais  aussi  etre  rapped  au  souvenir 
de  Mr.  J.  Ballantyne.  GARCIN  DE  TASSY." 

"30  O'br  1844. 

"  MONSIEUR. — J'ai  bien  longtemps  tarde*  a  repondre  a  votre  aimable 
envoi  ;  mais  dans  le  temps  que  votre  volume  m'a  ete  remis,  mon  pere 
etait  atteint  d'une  maladie  aigue  de  la  poitrine,  laquelle  1'a  enleve  a 
nos  respects  et  &  notre  affection.  Ce  coup  aussi  funeste  qu'imprevu 
m'a  plonge  dans  un  decouragement  profond,  et  sans  parler  des  soins 
de  tous  genres  qui  suivent,  d'ordinaire  dans  les  families  unies  autour 
d'un  chef  venere,  cette  separation  inevitable  mais  toujours  cruelle, 
je  n'ai  pu  pendant  plusieurs  mois  retrouver  la  force  necessaire  pour  me 
livrer  a  aucun  exercise  intellectuel.  Le  premier  usage  que  j'ai  fait  du 
travail  a  ete  de  lire  votre  ouvrage  qui  touche  par  tant  de  pointe  a  mes 


344  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1842. 

etudes  habituelles.  Vous  avez  certainement  terrasse  vos  adversaires  et 
vous  ne  leur  avez  laisse  d'autre  ressource  que  de  s'avouer  vaincus  ;  mais 
il  est  Men  a  craindre  qu'ils  n'y  aient  pas  recoups,  tant  1'esprit  est 
rebel  au  sens  commun.  La  tenacite  est  presqu'  invincible,  lorsque 
comme  chez  les  Parsees  et  les  Juifs,  il  s'appuye  sur  une  tradition  antique, 
et  qui  eut  un  temps  sa  gloire  et  une  superiorite  incontestee  sur  les 
autres  croyances  contemporaines.  Aujourd'hui  le  Parsesme  a  joue  et 
termine  son  role ;  et  n'a  plus  rien  a  faire  qu'  a  disparaitre  de  la  scene 
du  monde.  Vous  1'econduisez  victorieusement  et  tout  le  monde  en'con- 
viendra,  avec  une  moderation  qui  fait  le  plus  grand  honneur  a  votre 
caractere  ;  il  est  beau  d'etre  indulgent  quand  on  est  fort.  « 

"  Permettez  moi,  de  vous  remercier,  monsieur,  de  la  maniere  bien 
flatteuse  dont  vous  avez  ete  assez  bon  pour  placer  mon  nom  dans  votre 
savant  ouvrage,  et  agreez  avec  1'expression  de  ma  gratitude,  celle  de  la 
sincere  estime  avec  laquelle  j'ai  1'honneur  d'etre,  votre  tres  humble  et 
obeissant  serviteur,  EUG.  BURNOUF." 

"BONN,  1st  of  September  1845. — DEAR  SIR. — I  have  had  the  gratifi- 
cation of  receiving  the  valuable  present  of  your  learned  and  important 
book  on  the  Parsee  Religion,  and  beg  to  offer  you  my  sincere  thanks  for 
this  token  of  your  attention.  Having  devoted  much  time  and  labour 
to  the  study  of  the  Zand  language  and  the  remains  of  its  literature,  I 
need  hardly  assure  you  that  I  have  taken  a  deep  interest  in  your  discus- 
sions with  the  Parsees.  I  trust  that  your  labours  will  mainly  contribute 
to  enlighten  the  descendants  of  an  ancient  people  that  at  present  are 
sunk  into  such  a  deep  ignorance  of  their  religion.  Believe  me,  dear  Sir, 
your  most  obliged  and  obedient  servant,  CHR.  LASSEN." 

On  the  30th  December  1842  Dr.  Wilson  gave  in  his 
resignation  of  President  of  the  Bombay  Branch  of  the  Royal 
Asiatic  Society,  which  he  had  filled  for  seven  years.  He 
presented  it  with  a  copy  of  The  Parsi  Religion,  which  he 
dedicated  to  its  office-bearers  and  members  in  token  of 
gratitude  "for  the  warm  interest  which  many  of  them  in- 
dividually have  taken  in  my  labours  to  disseminate  useful, 
but  more  especially  divine,  knowledge  among  the  natives  of 
this  great  country,  whose  present  social  and  moral  condition, 
as.  well  as  past  history,  it  is  one  of  the  principal  objects  of 
this  Society  to  investigate  and  unfold."  His  letter  reviewed 
the  researches  of  the  more  prominent  members  of  the  Society. 


1842.]          RESIGNS  THE  CHAIR  OF  THE  ASIATIC  SOCIETY.          345 

He  gave  it  also  the  two  octavo  volumes  of  the  Vandidad 
in  Zand,  with  Goojaratee  translation,  lithographed  from  his 
own  MS.,  as  containing  the  doctrinal  standards  of  the  Parsees, 
two  Cufic  inscriptions  from  the  south  of  Arabia,  and  other 
works.  "  It  is  not  without  emotion,"  he  wrote,  "  I  sever  this 
link  which  has  bound  me  to  office  with  the  Society." 

"  To  The  REVEREND  J.  WILSON,  D.D.,  M.RA.S., 

President  of  the  Bombay  Branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society. 

"  SIR. — At  a  special  meeting  of  the  Bombay  Branch  of  the  Royal 
Asiatic  Society,  which  was  yesterday  convened  to  consider  of  the  most 
suitable  mode  of  testifying  the  high  respect  which  it  entertains  for  your 
character,  and  of  its  equally  high  sense  of  the  valuable  services  rendered 
by  you  to  the  Society  during  the  seven  years  you  have  filled  the  office 
of  President,  it  was  unanimously  resolved  that  a  committee  be  appointed 
to  draw  up  and  present  to  you  an  Address  embodying  the  above 
resolution,  and  expressive  of  its  deep  sense  of  the  loss  which  will  be 
sustained  as  regards  many  of  the  best  interests  of  the  Society  by  your 
departure  from  Bombay. 

"To  mark  the  high  sense  entertained  by  the  Society  of  your 
eminent  exertions  in  the  cause  of  oriental  learning  and  research,  it  was 
on  the  same  occasion  resolved  that  you  should  be  requested  tp  accept 
of  the  office  of  Honorary  President  of  this  Branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic 
Society.  It  having  devolved  upon  us  to  become  the  organ  of  this  gratify- 
ing communication  we  cannot  but  greatly  regret  our  incompetency  to  the 
satisfactory  performance  of  such  a  task,  and  the  great  inadequacy  both 
of  time  and  means  at  our  disposal  for  entering  on  more  than  a  brief 
enumeration  of  those  contributions  in  the  cause  of  oriental  literature 
for  which  the  Society  is  indebted  to  you — the  earliest  of  which  con- 
sists of  a  brief  but  most  able  and  interesting  review  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  Society  since  its  institution  in  the  year  1804,  up  to  the  end  of 
the  year  1835.  Your  other  learned  productions  during  the  same  year, 
consisted  of  *  Refutation  of  Muhammadanism  in  Persian  ;J  *  Observations 
on  Dr.  Gibson's  Notes  on  the  Inscriptions  of  the  Cave  Temples  of  Junar 
and  Nasik  ; '  an  '  Analysis  of  the  late  Sir  A.  Burnes'  Statistical  Papers 
on  Kutch ;'  and  '  Notes  on  the  Figures  and  Inscriptions,  in  an  unknown 
character,  from  Morab  in  Arabia,  illustrative  of  the  supposed  connection 
with  the  characters  of  the  Phoenicians  and  with  the  ancient  Alphabet 
of  Greece.' 


346  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1842. 

"  In  the  following  year  we  find  that  the  Society  is  indebted  to 
you  for  *  Notes  on  Dr.  Stevenson's  paper  on  the  Worship  of  Velal ; '  for 
an  account,  from  personal  observation,  of  the  '  Falls  of  the  Sherawutte, 
near  Gairsoppa,  in  Canara  ; '  also  for  facsimile  '  Inscriptions  on  the  Cave 
Temples  at  Karli,'  of  which,  aided  by  Prinsep's  monumental  alphabet, 
it  was  reserved  for  your  learned  associate  Dr.  Stevenson  and  yourself 
to  be  the  firs.t  decipherers  ;  since  which  period  Oriental  literature  has 
been  further  enriched  by  your  historical  account  of  the  Beni-Israel  of 
Bombay,  as  presented  at  the  annual  meetings  of  the  Society  of  1838 
and  1839  ;  by  your  first  and  second  'Exposures  of  Hinduism ; '  by  your 
'  Statistical  Accounts  of  the  Brahmans  of  Bombay ; '  by  your  interesting 
paper  on  the  l  Waralis  and  !£atodes  of  the  Northern  Konkan ; '  and  by 
your  numerous  translations  and  commentaries  of  works  connected  with 
the  religion  of  the  Parsees,  ending  with  your  comprehensive  and  very 
learned  work  on  the  same  subject,  presented  to  the  Society  at  yester- 
day's meeting,  and  dedicated  to  the  body  of  which  you  have  so  long 
been  the  chief  ornament  ;  upon  the  merits  of  all  which  contributions 
to  the  antiquarian,  philological,  and  statistical  departments  of  literature 
and  science,  we  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  more  competent 
judges  than  ourselves  have  highly  pronounced. 

"  Upon  the  occasion  of  your  departure  from  this  fruitful  field  of 
your  indefatigable  labours,  hastened  as  we  lament  to  know  it  is  by  that 
impairment  of  health  inseparable  from  the  bodily  exposure  and  mental 
application  you  have  for  so  long  a  period  without  intermission  under- 
gone, it  remains  for  us  to  notice  that  to  your  excellent  and  impartial 
judgment,  to  your  great  conversancy  with  the  details  of  whatever 
subject  has  engaged  discussion  at  the  numerous  meetings  of  the  Society 
which  have  had  the  benefit  of  your  presence,  and  to  your  conciliatory 
deportment  while  discharging  the  important  and  oftentimes  very 
delicate  functions  of  the  chair,  is  mainly  to  be  ascribed  the  continued 
welfare  of  the  Society,  and  that  harmony  which  has  so  long  subsisted 
among  its  members  ;  many  most  able  productions  before  the  public, 
which  have  emanated  from  your  pen  in  addition  to  those  above 
enumerated,  evincing  the  unexampled  degree  in  which  you  have 
dedicated  your  stores  of  knowledge  and  varied  attainments  in  further- 
ance of  the  professed  objects  in  view  by  such  an  institution. 

"With  claims  of  such  a  nature  to  the  admiration  and  lasting 
gratitude  of  the  Society,  resting  as  they  do,  like  those  of  an  Erskine,  an 
Elphinstone,  a  Malcolm,  and  a  Kennedy,  not  so  much  on  the  undis- 
puted possession  of  high  attainments,  as  upon  the  more  legitimate 
grounds  of  their  uniform  application  to  the  advancement  of  Oriental 


1842.]  ADDEESS  FROM  THE  ASIATIC  SOCIETY.  347 

literature,  it  was  a  source  of  the  highest  gratification  to  us  to  witness 
the  unanimity  with  which  the  proposition  was  received  by  so  numerous 
a  meeting,  that  a  gentleman  who  had  done  so  much  to  uphold  the 
reputation  of  this  branch  of  the  Asiatic  Society,  should  not  be  allowed 
to  quit  the  chair  without  a  tender  of  the  homage  so  justly  due  to  his 
great  learning  and  acknowledged  abilities,  and  without  some  special 
mark  of  the  estimation  in  which  the  eminent  services  which  he  has 
rendered  to  the  Society  and  to  Oriental  literature  are  held ;  and 
although  any  satisfaction  to  yourself  arising  from  such  a  source  must 
fall  far  short  of  that  purer  gratification  which  you  will  never  cease  to 
experience  from  the  sense  which  has  been  recently  manifested  by  other 
large  and  influential  bodies,  both  European  and  Native  of  this  com- 
munity, of  the  great  benefits  which  have  resulted  from  your  exemplary 
exertions  in  the  great  cause  of  religious  and  moral  enlightenment,  we 
are  willing  to  hope  that  you  will  not  be  indifferent  to  the  value  of 
those  expressions  of  the  Society's  esteem  and  respect  which  we  have 
been  made  the  channel  of  so  inadequately  conveying  to  you. 

"  It  only  remains  for  us  to  solicit  that  you  will  permit  the  manu- 
scripts of  the  Yagna  and  Vispard  to  be  retained  in  this  country,  with 
the  view  of  their  being  immediately  lithographed,  in  the  same  manner 
as  has  been  done  with  the  Vandidad,  at  the  expense  of  the  Society, 
with  a  view  to  their  being  placed  in  the  principal  libraries  of  India 
and  Europe. 

"  With  every  fervent  wish  for  the  early  restoration  of  your  health, 
we  remain,  dear  and  honoured  Sir,  yours  very  faithfully  and  sincerely, 
J.  DICKINSON.     K.  HAKTLEY-KENNEDT.     JOHN  LLOYD  PHILIPPS.     C. 
MOREHEAD.     JOHN  G.  MALCOLMSON. 
"BOMBAY,  31st  December  1842." 

"  GENTLEMEN. — The  call  to  me  to  occupy  the  chair  of  the  Bombay 
Branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  was  so  unexpected  and  undesired 
by  me,  that  nothing  but  my  respect  for  the  quarter  in  which  it  originated, 
and  the  unanimity  with  which  it  was  pressed  on  my  attention,  and  the 
belief  that  it  might  be  overruled  for  the  extension  of  my  influence 
among  the  natives  of  this  great  country,  overbore  the  doubts  about  my 
competency  to  discharge  its  duties,  which  my  youth  and  inexperience, 
and  want  of  patronage,  and  limited  attainments,  compared  with  those 
of  my  distinguished  predecessors,  suggested  to  my  mind.  That  I  have 
been  able  so  to  conduct  myself  since  I  accepted  that  call  as  to  escape 
censure,  I  reckon  a  happy  circumstance.  That  I  have  received  the 
approbation  of  the  Society,  and  conveyed  in  terms  so  expressive  of  per- 


348  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

sonal  regard  as  those  which  you  have  chosen  to  employ,  is  most  gratify- 
ing to  my  feelings,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they  are  greatly 
oppressed  by  my  consciousness  of  my  unworthiness  of  the  tribute 
which  you  have  offered.  To  the  kind  consideration,  liberal  indulgence, 
and  gentlemanly  feeling  of  the  members  of  the  Society,  and  to  the 
support,  and  judicious  assistance,  and  valuable  co-operation  which  I 
have  uniformly  received  from  my  associates  in  office,  we  are  greatly,  if 
not  altogether,  indebted  for  the  harmony  and  goodwill  and  agreeable 
fellowship  which  have  so  long  characterised  our  meetings  and  con- 
ferences. I  shall  never  forget  the  profitable  intercourse  which  I  have 
been  privileged  to  hold  at  our  table  with  the  most  honoured  members  of 
the  European  community  in  the  West  of  India,  nor  overlook  my  great 
obligations  to  their  charitable  and  liberal  interpretation  of  my  motives 
and  endeavours. 

"  That  I  should  be  associated  with  Major-General  Vans  Kennedy, 
as  an  Honorary  President  of  the  Society,  and  thus  receive  a  designa- 
tion formerly  limited  to  its  illustrious  founder  Sir  James  Mackintosh, 
I  feel  to  be  a  distinction  from  which  I  cannot  but  naturally  shrink. 
Knowing,  however,  the  sincerity  with  which  this  honour  is  offered  to 
me,  and  viewing  it  as  a  proof  of  that  personal  affection  on  which  I  have 
ever  laid  the  greatest  stress,  I  do  venture  to  accept  it,  and  to  look  to  it 
as  a  demand  made  upon  me  for  continued  exertion  in  behalf  of  the 
important  objects  which  the  Society  is  formed  to  promote.  Wherever 
I  may  be  carried  in  divine  providence,  and  with  whatever  engagements 
I  may  be  connected,  I  shall  not  overlook  the  obligation  which  rests 
upon  me  in  particular  to  do  all  in  my  power  towards  the  further  in- 
vestigation and  exposition  of  the  systems  of  faith  prevalent  in  this  great 
country,  and  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  economical  condition  of  the 
numerous  and  diversified  tribes  which  inhabit  its  oceanic  plains,  its 
gigantic  mountains,  and  its  exhaustless  forests,  and  the  consideration 
of  the  monuments  and  records  which  testify  to  its  past  greatness  and 
illustrate  its  chequered  history.  The  pursuits  in  connection  with  these 
matters,  to  which,  if  I  am  spared,  a  sense  of  duty  will  urge  me,  I  find 
to  be  in  strict  harmony  with,  and  greatly  auxiliary  to,  the  paramount 
work  which  I  have  undertaken,  of  seeking  the  enlightenment  of  the 
natives  of  India,  their  conversion  to  our  holy  religion,  and  their  accept- 
ance of  all  the  privileges  and  blessings  which,  as  Christians,  we  enjoy. 
The  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  whose  spirit  was  stirred  in  him 
when  he  saw  the  city  of  Athens  wholly  given  to  idolatry,  took  his 
text  before  the  Areopagus  from  an  inscription  which  he  observed  on  an 
altar,  and  quoted,  ex  concessu,  a  heathen  poet  who  had  set  forth  a  funda- 


1843.]  ELECTED  HONORARY  PRESIDENT.  349 

mental  truth.  Instruction  must  be  adapted  to  prevailing  errors,  and 
a  commencement  must  often  be  made  by  adverting  to  the  remnants  of 
a  pure  tradition,  the  workings  of  natural  conscience,  and  the  vain 
attempts  of  men  destitute  of  revelation  to  solve  the  grand  questions 
connected  with  the  moral  administration  of  God,  and  the  destiny  of  our 
species. 

"  The  manuscripts  of  the  Yafna  and  Vlspa/rd  to  which  you  refer,  are 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Society  for  the  purpose  you  mention.  Any 
Oriental  document  which  I  may  possess  will  be  forthcoming  whenever 
a  call  is  made  upon  me  for  its  use. 

"  I  beg  you,  in  conclusion,  respectfully  to  convey  to  the  Society 
the  great  gratification  which  I  have  derived  from  the  expression  of  its 
high  approval,  and  for  the  channel  through  which  it  has  been  con- 
veyed. For  you,  gentlemen,  I  entertain  the  highest  regard.  To 
Colonel  Dickinson's  friendship,  and  kindest  sympathy  and  countenance, 
and  able  advice,  I  have  been  from  the  first  greatly  indebted.  A  more 
worthy  head  the  Medical  Service  in  this  Presidency  could  not  have  than 
Dr.  Kennedy,  our  present  Physician -General,  whose  attainments  and 
doings  in  polite  literature  do  not  require  to  be  brought  to  notice.  In 
my  friend  Mr.  Philipps  I  observe  a  distinguished  alumnus  of  our 
English  Universities,  on  whose  forensic  eloquence  I  had  once  occasion 
to  make  a  demand.  Dr.  Morehead  was  for  some  time  my  companion 
in  study  at  Edinburgh ;  and  happy  am  I  to  observe  him  here  occupy 
such  an  influential  office  as  that  which  he  now  holds  in  connection 
with  the  Government  scheme  for  native  education.  Dr.  Malcolmson  is 
the  honour  and  hope  of  our  Society  as  to  all  that  pertains  to  the  science 
of  nature  in  its  diversified  forms.  The  hour  of  my  leaving  the  shores 
of  India  has  arrived,  and  I  must  bid  you  adieu. — I  am,  my  dear  Sirs, 
yours  most  respectfully  and  gratefully,  JOHN  WILSON. 

"  2d  January  1843." 

The  Parsee  editors  and  controversialists  were  not  soothed 
by  the  publication  of  Dr.  Wilson's  book.  His  almost  simul- 
taneous departure  gave  them  full  scope  for  criticism  without 
fear,  and  for  attack  without  the  possibility  of  rejoinder.  The 
editor  of  the  Durbin  promised  his  readers  to  answer  it,  but  in 
his  next  number  announced  that  the  subject  was  unsuited 
to  a  newspaper,  and  that  he  would  speedily  publish,  in 
an  independent  work,  a  long  and  copious  reply.  In  his 
edition  of  Dr.  Hang's  Essays,  Dr.  E.  W.  West  correctly 


350  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  t1843- 

states  that  "  any  personal  ill-feeling  which  Dr.  Wilson  may 
have  occasioned  by  his  book  soon  disappeared;  but  it  was 
many  years  before  his  habitual  kindliness  and  conscientious 
efforts  for  the  improvement  of  the  natives  of  India,  regained 
the  confidence  of  the  Parsees.  On  his  death,  however,  in 
1875,  no  one  felt  more  deeply  than  the^  Dastoors  themselves 
that  they  had  lost  one  of  their  best  friends,  and  that  in 
his  controversy  with  them  he  had  only  acted  as  his  duty 
compelled  him." 

The  controversy,  and  the  political,  educational,  and 
social  influences  that  preceded  it,  had  done  much  to  teach 
the  whole  community  such  lessons  of  toleration,  free  dis- 
cussion, and  public  virtue,  as  were  embodied  and  recognised 
in  Sir  Jamsetjee  Jeejeebhoy,  who  was  created  a  baronet 
in  1857.  The  day  after  Dr.  Wilson  sailed  from  Bombay, 
all  the  worthy  of  the  island,  Native  and  European,  united 
to  lay  the  foundation  of  the  noble  hospital,  which  bears 
this  inscription : — "  This  Edifice  was  erected  as  a  testimony 
of  devoted  loyalty  to  the  Young  Queen  of  the  British  Isles, 
and  of  unmingled  respect  for  the  just  and  paternal  British 
Government  in  India;  also,  in  affectionate  and  patriotic 
solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  the  poor  classes  of  all  races 
among  his  countrymen,  the  British  Subjects  of  Bombay,  by 
Sir  Jamsetjee  Jeejeebhoy,  Knight,  the  first  Native  of  India 
honoured  with  British  Knighthood,  who  thus  hoped  to  per- 
form a  pleasing  duty  towards  his  government,  his  country, 
and  his  people  :  and,  in  solemn  remembrance  of  blessings 
bestowed,  to  present  this,  his  offering  of  religious  gratitude  to 
Almighty  God,  the  Father  in  Heaven  of  the  Christian,  the 
Hindoo,  the  Mahommedan,  and  the  Parsee;  with  humble, 
earnest  prayer  for  His  continued  care  and  blessing  upon  his 
Children,  his  Family,  his  Tribe,  and  his  Country." 


CHAPTEK  XL 

1843. 

HOME    BY  ADEN,  CAIRO,  SINAI,  PETRA,  HEBRON,  JERUSALEM, 
DAMASCUS,  CONSTANTINOPLE  AND  PESTH. 

Reluctant  Farewell  to  India  for  a  time — Address  from  Non-Christian 
Students — Two  Hindoos  desire  to  accompany  him — Parsee  and  Abyssinian 
Youths,  his  Companions — Makulla  and  its  Slave  Atrocities — Aden  and  the 
Jews  of  Yemen — Plans  a  visit  to  Mecca — Cairo — Lepsius — Muhammad  Ali's 
Enlightenment — Dr.  Wilson's  Caravan  of  Forty-Seven  Camels — Jebel  Musa 
and  the  true  Sinai — The  first  snow  seen  for  fifteen  years — The  Petra  Excava- 
tions and  the  Rock-Cut  Temples  of  India — Hebron  and  a  Jewish  Greeting — 
Damascus — The  Samaritans  and  their  Pentateuch — Jacob's  Well  and  Dr.  A. 
Bonar's  Bible — Tiberias — Safed — The  Lebanon — Smyrna  and  Polycarp — Con- 
stantinople and  St.  Sophia — Guest  of  Sir  Stratford  Canning — Turks,  Bulgarians 
and  Servians— A  Police  Welcome  to  Christendom — Pesth — Rabbi  Duncan, 
Saphir  and  the  Free  Church  Mission — Interpreting  the  Gypsies — Presburg  and 
the  Prince  Palatine — Colonel  Sykes — Edinburgh  at  Last. 


"  I  say  that  the  effect  of  our  separateness  will  not  be  completed  and  have 
its  highest  transformation  unless  our  race  takes  on  again  the  character  of  a 
nationality.  That  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  religious  trust  that  moulded  them 
into  a  people,  whose  life  made  half  the  inspiration  of  the  world.  What  is  it 
to  me  that  the  ten  tribes  are  lost  untraceably,  or  that  multitudes  of  the 
children  of  Judah  have  mixed  themselves  with  the  Gentile  populations  as  a 
river  with  rivers?  Behold  our  people  still !  Their  skirts  spread  afar  ;  they 
are  torn  and  soiled  and  trodden  on  ;  but  there  is  a  jewelled  breastplate.  Let 
the  wealthy  men,  the  monarchs  of  commerce,  the  learned  in  all  knowledge, 
the  skilful  in  all  arts,  the  speakers,  the  political  counsellors,  who  carry  in 
their  veins  the  Hebrew  blood  which  has  maintained  its  vigour  in  all  climates, 
and  the  pliancy  of  the  Hebrew  genius  for  which  difficulty  means  new  device — 
let  them  say,  '  we  will  lift  up  a  standard,  we  will  unite  in  a  labour  hard  but 
glorious  like  that  of  Moses  and  Ezra,  a  labour  which  shall  be  a  worthy  fruit 
of  the  long  anguish  whereby  our  fathers  maintained  their  separateness,  re- 
fusing the  ease  of  falsehood.'  They  have  wealth  enough  to  redeem  the  soil 
from  debauched  and  paupered  conquerors  ;  they  have  the  skill  of  the  states- 
man to  devise,  the  tongue  of  the  orator  to  persuade.  And  is  there  no  prophet 
or  poet  among  us  to  make  the  ears  of  Christian  Europe  tingle  with  shame  at 
the  hideous  obloquy  of  Christian  strife  which  the  Turk  gazes  at  as  at  the 
fighting  of  beasts  to  which  he  has  lent  an  arena.  There  is  a  store  of  wisdom 
among  us  to  found  a  new  Jewish  polity,  grand,  simple,  just,  like  the  old — a 
republic  where  there  is  equality  of  protection,  an  equality  which  shone  like  a 
star  on  the  forehead  of  our  ancient  community,  and  gave  it  more  than  the 
brightness  of  Western  freedom  amid  the  despotisms  of  the  East.  Then  our 
race  shall  have  an  organic  centre,  a  heart  and  brain  to  watch  and  guide  and 
execute  ;  the  outraged  Jew  shall  have  a  defence  in  the  court  of  nations,  as  the 
outraged  Englishman  or  American.  And  the  world  will  gain  as  Israel  gains. 
For  there  will  be  a  community  in  the  van  of  the  East  which  carries  the 
culture  and  the  sympathies  of  every  great  nation  in  its  bosom  ;  there  will  be 
a  land  set  for  a  halting-place  of  enmities,  a  neutral  ground  for  the  East  as 
Belgium  is  for  the  West." — GEOEGE  ELIOT  :  Daniel  Deronda. 


CONTINUITY  OF  DR.  WILSON'S  WORK.  353 


CHAPTEK  XL 

FOR  fourteen  years  Dr.  Wilson  had  been  doing  a  work 
which,  in  its  variety,  permanence,  and,  above  all,  unselfish 
energy,  had  made  him,  while  still  under  forty  years  of  age, 
the  most  prominent  public  man  in  Western  India.  Gover- 
nors, commanders-in-chief,  and  judges,  had  come  and  gone 
from  Bombay.  Governors-General  and  members  of  Council 
had,  one  after  the  other,  striven  to  leave  their  mark  at  Cal- 
cutta on  the  progress  of  the  empire  politically  and  territori- 
ally. The  brief  span  of  the  five  years'  term  of  office,  however, 
allowed  to  all  then  as  still  more  perniciously  now,  broke  the 
continuity  of  progress,  and  silently  fostered  that  disbelief  in 
the  inevitable  growth  and  stability  of  British  rule,  the  out- 
burst of  which  took  civilisation  by  surprise  in  1857.  But 
Wilson,  like  Carey  before  him  and  Duff  on  the  other  side  of 
India,  had  gone  on  steadily  mapping  out  the  decaying  fields 
of  anti-Christian  and  non-Christian  error,  and,  in  the  exercise 
of  a  faith  which  was  strong  in  proportion  to  his  own 
labours,  taking  possession  of  them  for  his  Master.  Not  with 
him,  as  with  successive  Viceroys,  Presidents  of  the  Board  of 
Control,  and  occupants  of  the  Directors'  chairs,  did  the  pen- 
dulum swing  from  side  to  side,  now  violently  and'  again  at 
rest  altogether.  Coorg  conquests,  Afghan  wars  and  Sindh 
robberies,  might  go  on ;  the  far-seeing  philanthropy  of  a  Ben- 
tinck  might  be  neutralised  by  the  stupid  reaction  of  an 
Auckland,  or  imperilled  by  the  meteor-like  madness  of  an 
Ellenborough,  till  massacre,  debt,  and  unrighteousness  stained 
the  annals  of  England  as  no  event  in  her  foreign  history  had 

2  A 


354  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

done.  But  the  missionary,  master  of  the  literature,  the  lan- 
guages, the  history,  and  therefore  the  heart,  of  the  peoples  of 
different  faiths,  and  fired  with  a  divine  enthusiasm  which  no 
policy  of  man  however  exalted  can  give,  had  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  the  Church  of  Western  India ;  had  grappled  with 
Brahmanism,  Muhammadanism,  and  Parseeism  on  their  chosen 
ground;  had  added  to  his  own  direct  work  in  the  Konkan, 
Poona,  and  Bombay,  the  Irish  Mission  in  Goojarat  and  the 
beginnings  of  the  Free  Church  Mission  in  Central  India  and 
Gondwana;  had  prepared  the  means  of  evangelising  the  Jews 
and  the  Arabs,  the  Armenians  and  the  Nestorians,  the  Abys- 
sinians  and  the  Negroes  around  the  Arabian  sea;  had  proved 
as  salt  to  the  English  society  of  his  own  province,  and  had 
set  in  motion  spiritual  and  social  forces  which  continue  to 
work  with  unceasing  momentum.  Can  we  wonder  that, 
when  the  hour  came  to  leave  it  all,  though  only  for  a  time, 
there  was  more  than  the  regret  which  every  true  worker  for 
and  lover  of  the  people  of  India  experiences,  in  spite  of  the 
attractions  of  home  and  the  pains  of  exile?  The  conviction 
that  he  was  only  continuing  his  work  on  a  wider  area  was 
required  to  second  the  commands  of  the  physicians  whose 
warnings  had  been  long  unheeded.  There  were  showered 
on  the  departing  philanthropist  the  farewells  of  loving  and 
respectful  admiration  from  public  and  private  friends,  in 
a  land  where  the  Anglo-Indian  has  more  than  caught 
the  brotherhood-hospitality  of  the  Oriental.  Every  com- 
munity, not  excepting  individual  Parsees,  vied  with  the  other 
in  its  demonstrations,  while  the  Government  of  Sir  George 
Arthur  supplied  letters  to  the  authorities  of  the  countries 
through  which  the  traveller  wished  to  pass.  Among  many 
others,  Mr.  Frere  begged  his  distinguished  uncle  at  Malta  to 
show  him  all  honour. 

More  highly  even  than  the  address  of  the  Asiatic  Society, 
did  Dr.  Wilson  value  that  of  the  native  and  non-Christian 


1843.]  ADDRESS  OF  NON-CHRISTIAN  STUDENTS.  355 

students  of  the  Institution  which  he  had  established  in  1832 
as  an  English  school.  They  had  again  increased  in  number 
from  155  in  1841  to  203,  of  whom  98  were  Hindoos,  8  Muham- 
madans,  28  Parsees,  Israelites,  and  Jews,  and  68  Christians, 
while  675  boys  and  479  girls  attended  the  vernacular  schools. 
He  thus  wrote  to  Dr.  Brunton  of  these  addresses  :  — 


SEA,  January  1843.  —  The  last  month  which  I  spent  in 
Bombay  was  one  of  extreme  anxiety,  agitation,  and  labour.  It  was  not 
without  a  great  struggle  that  I  could  reconcile  myself  to  the  curtail- 
ment of  the  operations  of  our  Mission  —  too  feeble  from  the  beginning. 
The  numerous  tokens  of  private  regard  and  public  honour  of  which 
I  am  so  unworthy,  which  were  bestowed  upon  me  both  by  the  natives 
and  our  countrymen,  made  me  feel  that  I  was  about  to  be  separated 
from  friends  who  bear  to  me  no  ordinary  attachment,  and  from  duties 
which  were  as  agreeable  as  they  were  arduous.  I  felt  that  nothing 
but  the  grace  of  God  could  sustain  me,  and  I  trust  that  this  grace  was 
not  withheld.  At  the  request  of  the  students  of  our  own  Institution  I 
send  you  the  copy  of  the  address  which  they  were  pleased  to  present 
to  me  at  a  public  meeting  which  they  themselves  called  for  the  purpose 
of  putting  it  into  my  hands. 

"  It  is,  I  hope,  sufficiently  qualified  by  my  reply,  and  it  is  alto- 
gether a  genuine  document,  the  production  of  the  proper  natives  of 
India,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  of  European  descent.  How  near  they  are 
to  genuine  Christian  feeling  and  sentiment  I  leave  you  to  judge. 
Their  combination  in  this  instance,  many  of  them  were  happy  to 
observe,  seemed  to  embolden  them  in  the  expression  of  their  religious 
principles,  and  to  unite  them  in  their  desires  for  the  continued  pros- 
perity of  our  seminary.  It  will  be  your  prayer  and  that  of  others 
that  the  Lord  Himself  may  lead  them  into  the  knowledge,  belief,  and 
practice  of  all  truth. 

"  The  other  addresses  which  I  have  unexpectedly  received  are  not 
without  interest  in  a  philanthropic  point  of  view,  but  I  shall  not 
trouble  you  by  thrusting  them  at  present  on  your  attention.  I  may 
mention,  however,  that  that  from  the  heads  of  the  Beni-Israel  com- 
munity indicates  a  strong  inclination  to  the  pursuit  of  the  truth  —  an 
appreciation  of  the  blessings  of  which  we  seek  to  put  them  in  posses- 
sion." 

The  first  day  of  1843  was  Sunday,  when  Dr.  Wilson  concluded 


356  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

his  ministrations  "  by  beseeching  the  little  flock  of  converts 
from  Hindooism,  Zoroastrianism,  and  Muhammadanism,  which 
had  been  gathered  together  through  my  own  ministry  and  that  of 
my  fellow-labourers,  to  let  their  conversation  be  as  it  becometh 
the  Gospel  of  Christ,  that  whether  I  might  come  and  see  them, 
or  else  be  absent,  I  might  hear  of  their  affairs."     His  own 
countrymen  present  he  called  on  "  to  anticipate  the  glorious 
era  of  the  moral  renovation  of  India,  when  '  all  the  ends  of 
the  world  shall  remember  and  turn  unto  the  Lord,  and  all  the 
kindreds  of  the  nations  shall  worship  before  Him.'  "     Sunset 
of  the  next  day  saw  him  accompanied  to  the  Palawa  or  Apollo 
pier,  and  on  to  the  deck  of  the  East  India  Company's  steamer 
"Cleopatra,"  by  a  regretful  crowd  of  Native  and  European 
friends,  among   them  Professor  Westergaard  who  had  been 
his  guest  for  months.     In  the  infancy  of  the  Overland  Route, 
before  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Company  had  reduced  the 
distance  between  Bombay  and  London  to  twenty  days — soon 
we  trust  to  be  sixteen,  or  at  most  eighteen — a  monthly  steamer 
was  run  to  Aden  and  Suez  by  the  Indian  Navy.     So  late  as 
1854  the  mail  was  only  fortnightly,  and  the  Bombay  portion 
of  it  was  even  then  carried  by  a  Company's  steamer  between 
Aden  and  Bombay.     Among  the  natives  who  lingered  last  on 
the  deck  were  two  who  had  so  far  overcome  Brahmanical  and 
caste  prejudice  as  to  express  a  desire  to  travel  with  Dr.  Wilson. 
These  were  Atmaram  Pandurang,  a  Brahman  gentleman  who 
is  still  respected  as  the  head  of  the  Prarthna  Samaj,  corre- 
sponding to  Baboo  Keshub  Chunder  Sen's  Brahmo  theists  ;  and 
Gunput  Lukshmun,  of  the  Prabhoo  or  writer  caste. 

Dr.  Wilson  had  prepared  for  and  planned  his  expedition 
with  a  care  which,  in  some  degree,  every  traveller  would  do 
well  to  show.  His  object  was  to  visit  Egypt,  Syria,  especially 
the  Holy  Land  and  Eastern  Europe,  not  merely  for  purposes 
of  scholarly  and  biblical  research,  but  to  report  to  his  Church 
on  the  condition  of  the  Jews,  the  Samaritans,  and  the  Eastern 


1843.]  PREPARATIONS  FOR  HIS  SYRIAN  EXPEDITION.  357 

Christians.  He  had  accumulated  and  mastered  a  library  of 
all  the  early  travellers  in,  and  writers  on,  Syria,  such  as  few 
public  collections  possessed  at  that  time,  and  much  of  this  he 
took  with  him.  He  had  devoted  himself  anew  to  Arabic,  and 
to  familiarity  with  that  he  gave  up  all  the  leisure  of  the  fort- 
night's voyage  to  Suez.  Not  only  by  letters  to  the  Political 
Eesidents  and  Consuls,  but  by  despatching  Mordecai,  a  Jew, 
a  month  or  two  before  him,  he  found  information  awaiting 
him  at  Aden  and  at  Cairo.  The  friend  who  was  specially 
his  companion  in  travel,  the  late  John  Smith,  Esq.,  of  the 
well-known  mercantile  firm  of  Messrs.  Mcol  and  Co.,  had 
also  gone  before  him  to  recruit  his  strength  by  a  voyage  up 
the  Nile,  and  to  prepare  at  Cairo  the  expedition  for  the  Desert 
and  Syria.  All  that  intelligence,  foresight,  and  learning 
could  do,  aided  by  willing  friends,  was  done  to  perfect  the 
success  of  the  expedition.  The  Church  of  Scotland,  through 
both  the  Foreign  and  Jewish  Committees,  intended  it  to 
complete  the  inquiry  carried  out  a  few  years  before  by  Drs. 
Keith  and  Black,  Mr.  M'Cheyne,  and  Dr.  Andrew  Bonar,  the 
present  Moderator  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 

Dr.  Wilson  was  accompanied,  first  of  all,  by  Dhunjeebhoy 
Nourojee,  whose  affection  and  fidelity  he  had  tested  in  more 
than  one  of  his  Indian  tours.  It  was  desirable  that  the  first 
Parsee  convert  to  Christianity  should  complete  at  college  in 
Scotland  those  eight  years'  studies  for  the  office  of  preacher 
which  the  Scottish  Churches  wisely  demand  that  their  minis- 
ters may  have  a  theological  as  well  as  literary  education,  and 
which  he  had  been  pursuing  in  Bombay.  Dr.  Wilson  also 
contemplated  the  publication  of  a  translation  into  Goojaratee 
of  his  Parsi  Religion,  and  he  proposed  that  Dhunjeebhoy 
should  write  that  on  the  lithographic  stones  in  Edinburgh. 
Next  came  the  two  Abyssinian  students,  Gabru  and  Maricha, 
who  had  sat  at  his  table  for  nearly  five  years,  and  were  now 
returning  to  their  native  land  to  introduce  into  it  the  bless- 


358  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

ings  of  a  pure  Christianity  and  political  wisdom.  They 
parted  from  their  spiritual  father  at  Aden,  who  prayed  "  that 
to  their  benighted  countrymen  they  might  be  the  instruments 
of  great  spiritual  good,  even  as  Frumentius  and  ^Edesius,  the 
tender  Tyrian  youths  through  whom  the  Gospel  was  first 
introduced  into  their  native  land."  We  shall  see  how  effec- 
tually, but  differently  from  Dr.  Wilson's  expectations,  the 
prayer  was  answered.  Finally,  the  Government  Surveyor, 
Colonel  Dickinson,  had  recommended  as  draftsman  a  Mr. 
O'Brien,  who  did  his  part  of  the  mission  well. 

As  the  '  Cleopatra '  skirted  the  southern  coast  of  Arabia 
Makulla  came  in  sight,  recalling  the  horrors  of  the  slave 
trade,  of  which  it  continued  to  be  an  infamous  emporium 
till  1873.  There  Captain  Haines  had  seen  seven  hundred 
Nubian  girls  at  a  time,  subjected  in  its  slave-market  to  the 
disgusting  inspection  of  the  Mussulman  sensualist,  to  be 
smuggled  into  the  native  states  of  Kathiawar.  Off  Makulla 
it  was  that,  a  few  years  before,  two  boats  laden  chiefly  with 
negro  children  shipped  from  Zanzibar,  had  been  seized  by  the 
Indian  Navy,  and  the  freed  youths  were  distributed  among 
the  Christian  Missions  of  Western  India.  At  Aden,  first  of 
our  conquests  in  the  reign  of  the  young  Queen  Victoria, 
Captain  Haines,  the  first  Governor,  became  Dr.  Wilson's  host, 
and  aided  him  in  his  census  and  study  of  the  Jewish  com- 
munity. Of  19,938  inhabitants  of  that  extinct  volcano,  in 
1843,  there  were  590  Jews,  480  Jewesses,  and  857  Europeans, 
the  last  chiefly  the  troops  of  the  garrison.  The  geological 
structure  of  the  vast  cinder  which  was  once  forced  up  through 
the  limestone,  so  interested  Dr.  Wilson  that,  as  he  collected 
specimens  of  zeolite,  chalcedonies,  obsidian  and  vesicular 
lava,  the  simple  Somalees  who  crowded  round  him  declared 
he  must  be  searching  for  gold  or  hid  treasure  by  magical 
arts.  His  scientific  conclusions  were  confirmed  by  Dr.  Buist, 
who  had  not  long  before  begun  his  bright  literary  career  in 


1843.]  ADEX MECCA SUEZ CAIRO.  359 

India,  and  whom  Dr.  Wilson  described  at  that  time  as  "  one 
of  the  most  accomplished  mineralogists  and  geologists  in  the 
East."  At  Aden  the  president  of  the  Asiatic  Society  dis- 
cussed with  Captain  Haines  those  Himyaritic  inscriptions 
which  had  begun  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  learned.  To 
complete  his  study  of  the  Jews,  whose  settlement  in  Yemen 
had  taken  place  long  before  the  Christian  era,  Dr.  Wilson 
was  anxious  that  the  steamer  should  stop  at  Jeddah  on  its 
way  up  the  Eed  Sea  that  he  might  attempt  to  reach  Mecca. 
He  had  been  encouraged  to  believe  that  he  might  report 
on  the  capital  of  Islam  in  safety,  by  Lieutenant  Christo- 
pher, I.  N".,  who  had  been  assured  by  its  governor  that  a 
European  traveller  quietly  proceeding  from  the  coast  would 
find  no  obstacle.1  At  Suez  the  governor  showed  a  keen  in- 
terest in  our  disasters  in  Afghanistan,  in  conversation  with 
Dr.  Wilson,  who  also  was  surprised  when  addressed  in 
excellent  English  by  an  Arab,  one  of  the  young  Fellaheen 
who  had  been  sent  by  Muhammad  Ali  to  Glasgow  for  edu- 
cation, and  had  been  there  baptized. 

At  Cairo,  after  the  old  and  not  unpleasant  passage  of 
the  desert  in  vans,  Dr.  Wilson  found  the  first  and  greatest 
of  the  present  dynasty  of  Egyptian  rulers  building  his 
mosque  and  palace  on  the  platform  of  the  citadel  which 
overlooks  the  Nile  valley  and  the  pyramids.  He  formed 
a  high  idea  of  the  tolerant  but  firm  rule  of  the  quondam 
tobacco-seller  of  Eoumelia,  whom — perhaps  in  an  evil 
hour — we  prevented  from  remaining  master  of  all  Syria 
and  Arabia.  The  Jews,  the  Copts,  the  mission  of  good  Mr. 
Lieder,  the  mosques,  the  tombs,  and  the  pyramids,  absorbed 
Dr.  Wilson's  attention  for  days.  He  found  himself  already 
known  to  the  small  band  of  Egyptologists,  with  some  of  whom 
he  had  corresponded.  He  was  unanimously  elected  an 
Honorary  Member  of  the  Egyptian  Society.  M.  Linant  de 

1  The  Lands  of  the  Bible  Visited  and  Described,  p.  33. 


360  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

Bellefonds,  in  officially  communicating  the  fact,  begged  him 
"  to  accept  this  title  as  the  best  tribute  of  respect  which  the 
Society  can  offer  to  one  so  eminently  distinguished  as  your- 
self in  Oriental  researches."  Dr.  Wilson  especially  enjoyed 
learned  intercourse  with  the  great  scholar  Lepsius,  the  head 
of  the  commission  sent  by  the  King  of  Prussia  to  report  on  the 
antiquities  of  Egypt.  M.  Linant,  who  had  accompanied  M. 
Le*on  de  Laborde  to  Petra,  gave  him  much  information  for  his 
journey  to  the  same  place.  With  Lepsius  he  explored  the 
pyramids  and  the  half-disentombed  sphinx.  "When  we 
were  there  the  body  of  a  child  was  exhumed.  The  coffin  had 
upon  it  the  cartouche  of  '  Psammatik '  or  Psammitichus.  I 
carried  part  of  its  contents  with  me  to  Cairo,  and  afterwards 
to  England,  without  attributing  any  great  importance  to  the 
possession."  He  made  considerable  purchases  of  the  most 
important  Arabic,  Persian,  and  Turkish  works,  published  by 
Muhammad  Ali's  press,  including  the  three  folios  of  the 
Kdmtis  or  Ocean,  the  famous  Dictionary  translated  into 
Turkish ;  of  the  Persian  Burhdn-i-Kdtia,  in  Turkish  he  had 
the  beautiful  edition  lithographed  at  Bombay.  His  account  of 
the  publications  and  of  the  educational  system  of  Egypt  at  that 
time  is  most  favourable  to  Muhammad  Ali.  The  latter  may  be 
contrasted  with  that  since  developed  and  now  administered 
by  Mr.  Kogers,  formerly  H.  M.  Consul  at  Cairo.  That  he 
might  have  free  intercourse  with  the  native  inhabitants  of 
Cairo,  Dr.  Wilson  lodged  with  one  Hassan  Effendi,  teacher  of 
geology  in  the  Bulak  Polytechnic  School,  who  had  become  a 
Christian  when  in  England,  and  had  married  an  English  wife. 
Cairo  is  now  as  much  a  French  as  it  is  an  Oriental  city,  but 
the  record1  of  Dr.  Wilson's  experience  correctly  describes  the 

1  "  To  the  visitor  from  India  there  is  nothing  at  first  sight  very  striking  in 
the  interior  of  Cairo,  except  in  so  far  as  the  large  and  dense  town  itself  con- 
trasts with  the  absolute  desolation  and  solitude  of  the  desert  through  which  he 
has  just  passed.  His  eye  is  accustomed  to  narrow,  irregular,  and  dirty  streets, 
crowded  bazaars,  lofty  minarets,  and  swelling  domes,  and  to  a  people  of 


1843.]  CAIRO  AS  IT  WAS.  361 

impressions  which  the  capital  of  Muhammad  Ali  used  to 
leave  on  the  Anglo-Indian  visitor. 

From  Cairo  Dr.  Wilson's  expedition  made  its  final  start 
on  the  7th  of  February  1843.  Consisting  of  nine  persons 
besides  servants,  and  forty-seven  camels,  it  formed  an  impos- 
ing caravan.  Dr.  Wilson  himself  was  unanimously  installed 
as  quartermaster-general  and  interpreter,  after  the  Indian 
fashion — that  is,  he  settled  arbitrarily  all  questions  connected 
with  the  route  and  the  times  of  marching  and  halting.  The 
whole  had  been  arranged  and  provisioned  by  the  Bombay 
merchant  prince,  Mr.  J.  Smith,  who,  having  been  already  two 
months  on  the  Nile,  relieved  his  companions  of  all  care  on 
this  head.  Throughout  he  was  paymaster-general,  charged 
to  keep  a  faithful  account  of  the  expenses  due  by  each.  The 
Eev.  H.  Sherlock,  and  Messrs.  Allan  and  Parke,  from  Eng- 
land, were  their  companions  through  the  whole  of  the  desert 
journey.  Mr.  O'Brien  the  artist,  Dhunjeebhoy,  Mordecai  the 

varied  line  and  romantic  costume.  Yet  lie  does  soon  perceive  that  in  Cairo  he 
is  not  in  an  Indian  city.  Its  houses  he  finds  higher,  larger,  of  more  durable 
material,  more  crowded  together,  and  more  sombre  and  shaded,  with  their 
over-jutting  upper  stories,  than  those  of  Hindostan.  Its  bazaars  and  shops 
are  constructed  and  fitted  up  with  far  more  order  and  taste,  and  better  adapta- 
tion to  their  object,  than  those  in  which  the  Wanis  and  Borahs  dispense  their 
wares.  Its  men  are  more  substantially  and  gracefully  clothed,  but  less  cleanly 
in  their  persons,  than  those  with  whom  he  has  been  familiar  in  the  farther 
east.  Its  women  he  cannot  at  all  compare  with  the  daughters  of  India  ;  for 
by  their  impenetrable  and  frightful  veils,  and  shapeless  mantles  and  robes, 
inflated  with  and  floating  on  the  breeze,  their  face  and  form  are  alike  rendered 
invisible.  The  distressing  grunt  and  heavy  tread  of  the  palkhi-bearer  have 
given  way  to  the  yelling,  and  poking,  and  lashing  of  the  donkey-boy.  The 
gadis,  buggies,  and  hurly-gigs  of  all  shapes  and  sizes,  such  as  are  seen  in 
Bombay,  are  so  completely  wanting,  that  whole  days  may  pass  without  his 
seeing  a  single  wheeled  vehicle.  The  streets  in  fact  are  so  narrow  that  most 
of  them  do  not  permit  a  carriage  even  of  the  smallest  dimensions  to  pass  along. 
The  courtesy  and  sycophancy  of  the  multitude  have  entirely  disappeared. 
Though  he  is  not  now  insulted  on  the  highways  as  before  the  days  of  Muhammad 
Ali  he  would  not  have  failed  to  be,  he  sees  none  of  that  deference  shown  to  him 
in  public  which  he  experiences  in  India,  where  the  submissive  and  peaceable 
Hindoo  hails  him  as  at  once  his  lord  and  benefactor." 


362  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

Jew,  and  his  little  son  Abraham,  completed  the  party. 
Abdool  Futteh,  known  in  Arabia  as  the  "  man  of  the  con- 
vent," from  his  frequent  visits  to  the  abodes  of  the  monks, 
and  valued  by  Colonel  Howard  Vyse,  was  Dr.  Wilson's  ser- 
vant. Mr.  J.  Smith  engaged  Waters,  an  educated  African 
who  had  come  from  Bombay.  The  others  secured  the  services 
of  two  assistants,  one  of  whom  was  Ibraheem,  once  employed 
by  Dr.  Eobinson  in  his  Biblical  Researches,  and  again  by  the 
Scottish  Mission. 

Tor  the  first  stage,  by  the  Derb  El-Basatin  and  the 
"  valley  of  the  wanderings  "  to  Sinai,  the  party  had  engaged, 
as  its  guide  and  protector,  Mateir,  sheikh  of  the  same 
Aleikat  branch  of  the  Tawarah  Arabs  who  had  helped 
Mebuhr  in  his  explorations  in  stony  Arabia.  Guided  by  local 
traditions  Dr.  Wilson  sought  to  trace  the  route  of  the  Israelites 
from  the  Nile  to  the  Gulf  of  Suez,  by  a  track  which  he 
believed  to  harmonise  more  easily  with  the  narrative  of  the 
Exodus  than  that  followed  by  other  travellers.  The  inscrip- 
tions in  the  Wadi  Mukatteb,  or  valley  of  the  writings,  had 
for  him  a  peculiar  interest.  He  examined  the  exhausted 
Pharaonic  mines  to  the  northward,  and  visited  Wadi  Feiran, 
"the  most  beautiful  valley  in  the  wilderness,  in  which  the 
Christianity  of  the  Arabian  desert  long  found  a  refuge."  A 
careful  study  of  the  whole  Jebel  Musa  range  led  him  to  hold 
by  the  traditional  peak  as  the  very  "  heaven  "  from  which 
God  "  talked  "  with  men,  in  opposition  to  that  of  Sufsafah, 
which  Dr.  Eobinson,  and  the  Ordnance  Survey  recently,  con- 
sider to  have  been  the  spot  where  the  Lord  descended  in  fire 
and  proclaimed  the  Law.  The  publication  of  the  late  Dr. 
Beke's  theory,1  first  propounded  by  him  in  1834,  that  the 
land  of  bondage  was  a  separate  kingdom,  stretching  from  the 
east  of  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  to  Philistia,  and  that  the  real 
Sinai  is  what  he  calls  Jebel  el  Nur,  in  the  land  of  Midian,  at 
the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Akaba,  gives  a  new  interest  to  a  vexed 

1  Sinai  in  Arabia,  1878. 


1843.]  ON  SINAI ON  MOUNT  HOR AT  PETRA.  363 

question,  on  which  Captain  Burton's  expedition  of  this  year 
may  throw  some  light.  To  a  careful  examination  of  both 
Musa  and  Sufsafah  Mr.  J.  Smith  specially  devoted  himself. 
From  the  top  of  Musa  he  ran  down  to  the  chapel  of  Elijah  in 
twelve  minutes,  and  in  three-quarters  of  an  hour  scrambled 
up  to  the  top  of  Sufsafah,  climbing  the  pinnacle  on  all  fours 
in  a  serpentine  line.  He  and  the  Musa  party  could  distinctly 
hear  the  call  of  one  another,  being  at  a  distance  of  not  more 
than  one  geographical  mile.  The  top  of  Musa  was  found  covered 
in  some  places  with  snow,  which  Dr.  Wilson  had  not  seen  since 
he  left  the  Lammermoors  fifteen  years  before,  and  the  Parsee, 
Dhunjeebhoy  beheld  and  tasted  for  the  first  time. 

From  this  point  the  party  crossed  the  Tih  range  into  the 
desert,  along  the  course  of  Jabal  Ajmeh  to  the  Ghadir  al  Guf. 
Three  of  the  party  went  on  to  Hebron,  while  Dr.  Wilson  and 
Mr.  J.  Smith  made  a  new  arrangement  with  the  Badaween  to 
march  to  Petra.  Having  managed,  without  opposition,  to 
ascend  Mount  Hor  and  examine  the  tomb  of  Aaron,  they 
"descended  into  the  fearful  chasm  of  Petra  by  moonlight, 
and  we  there  found  our  humble  tents  and  servants  ready  for 
our  reception."  After  a  quotation  from  The  Lands  of  the 
Bible,  contrasting  the  rock-cut  temples  of  India  with  the 
excavations  of  Petra,  we  must  send  our  readers  to  that  elabo- 
rate book — in  the  preparation  of  which  Dr.  Wilson  spent  all 
his  home  leisure  up  to  May  1847,  when  it  was  published  in 
Edinburgh  in  two  volumes — and  turn  to  his  letters  to  India 
for  a  summary  of  the  rest  of  the  tour.  That  work,  dedi- 
cated to  Dr.  Chalmers  who  showed  a  keen  interest  in  its 
preparation,  has  still  a  special  value  in  the  literature  of  travel 
in  Bible  lands  for  four  reasons :  It  records  the  impressions  of 
a  learned  and  observant  traveller  who  approached  Syria  from 
the  East  with  a  knowledge  of  many  Oriental  languages  and 
peoples.  It  describes  several  places  not  previously  visited  by 
Europeans.  It  devotes  careful  attention  to  all  tribes  of 


843. 


364  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [18 

Jewish  descent  or  faith,  from  the  Beni-Israel  of  Bombay  and 
the  White  and  Black  Jews  of  Southern  India,  to  Yemen, 
Cairo,  and  Syria.1  And  the  work  is,  to  this  day,  the  highest 
authority  on  many  points  relating  to  the  Eastern  Christian 
Churches  and  communities,  and  should  be  studied  in  the 
light  of  the  great  Turkish  collapse  and  Russian  extension. 
Dr.  Wilson  had  undertaken  the  duty  of  meeting  two  Presby- 

1  The  Arabian  Jews  in  Bombay  thus  introduced  Dr.  Wilson  to  their 
"brethren  of  the  house  of  Israel  in  the  four  districts — Jerusalem,  Tsaphatli 
(Safed),  Hebron,  and  Taberiah  (Tiberias),"  after  a  page  of  Oriental  compli- 
ments : — "  '  We  make  known  to  your  reverences  that  there  goes  from  among 
us  one  who  is  of  the  men  of  the  English,  and  who  is  of  the  city  of  Bombay. 
May  it  stand  for  ever  !  And  he  is  a  great  man,  and  his  name  is  Padre  JOHX 
WILSON.  He  is  highly  counted  of,  and  of  generous  heart.  He  desires  to  go 
to  the  four  districts  to  perform  the  pilgrimage.  We  entreat  of  you  that  your 
reverences  may  do  him  honour  in  every  place  where  the  sole  of  his  foot  may 
tread.  This  will  hallow  the  name  of  the  Lord.  For  he  loveth  Israel,  and  is 
generous  with  his  property,  and  showeth  kindness  to  all  Israel.  Whatever 
act  of  kindness  you  will  do  to  him  we  shall  consider  as  if  it  had  been  done 
to  ourselves.  This  is  sufficient  for  the  intelligent.  And  in  this  manner  may 
the  height  of  the  throne  of  their  reverences  be  lifted  up  and  exalted.  As  the 
thrones  of  kings  rnay  their  greatness  be  multiplied  both  in  their  courts  and 
palaces.  May  the  Lord  bless  their  portion,  and  be  pleased  with  the  work  of 
their  hands  as  with  a  burnt-offering,  a  sweet  smelling  savour  to  the  Lord. 
The  upright  shall  dwell  rejoicing,  and  being  glad,  safe  in  their  imaginings. 
Let  their  tents  prosper.  [Let  them  be  like]  myrrh  and  aloes,  and  like 
gardens  by  a  river — like  tents  that  the  Lord  hath  planted — like  pleasant 
plants.  Let  there  be  strength  and  pleasure  in  all  their  borders.  Ye  shall 
dwell  safely  in  your  land.  The  Lord  God  of  recompenses  shall  requite.  May 
goodness  be  multiplied  upon  the  house  of  Israel !  .  .  .  .  Written  in  the 
city  of  Bombay  on  the  fourth  of  the  month  Tebeth,  in  the  year :  '  He  shall 
blow  with  the  great  trumpet  because  the  Lord  will  save  his  people  Israel.' 
(IT1J  5603.')  (Here  follow  the  signatures.)  On  this  grave  production  having 
been  read,  the  venerable  and  learned  rabbis  handed  it  round  from  one  to 
another,  renewed  their  salutations,  and  kindly  inquired  for  the  elders  of  the 
congregation  of  Bombay  whose  signature  it  bears.  The  Hakim  then  told  me 
that  he  was  extremely  happy  that  I  had  come  to  visit  the  afflicted  Jews  in 
their  own  land,  and  cordially  thanked  me  for  all  the  kindness  which  I  had 
shown  to  the  afflicted  Jews  of  India,  of  which,  he  said,  he  had  before  heard 
from  the  Shelohim,  who  had  been  sent  from  Hebron  to  collect  alms  for  their 
relief  in  that  country.  Eabbi  Moshe,  one  of  these  messengers,  whom  I  had 
seen  in  Bombay,  upon  this  rose  and  shook  hands  with  us,  according  to  the 
customs  of  Europe." 


1843.]      EXCAVATIONS  OF  PETRA  AND  INDIA  CONTRASTED.        365 

terian  missionaries  to  the  Jews,  Mr.  now  Dr.  Graham,  and 
Mr.  Allan ;  and  it  will  be  seen  that  with  them  he  fixed  on 
Damascus  as  the  centre  of  their  labours. 

"  As  efforts  of  architectural  skill  the  excavations  of  Petra  undoubt- 
edly excel  those  of  the  Hindoos,  which  they  also  exceed  in  point  of 
general  extent,  if  we  except  the  wonderful  works  at  Verula  or  Elora. 
In  individual  magnitude  they  fall  short  of  many  of  the  cave  temples, 
collegiate  halls,  and  monastic  cells  of  the  farther  East.  Their  interest, 
too,  is  wholly  exterior;  while  that  of  those  of  India,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  great  Brahmanical  temple  of  Kailds,  and  the  porticos  of  the 
Buddhist  Vihars  of  Sashtl  and  Karli,  is  principally  in  the  multitudi- 
nous decorations  and  fixtures,  and  gigantic  mythological  figures  of  the 
interior.  The  sculptures  and  excavations  of  Petra  have  been  principally 
made  by  individuals,  in  their  private  capacity,  for  private  purposes,  and 
the  comparatively  limited  amount  of  workmanship  about  them  has 
permitted  this  to  be  the  case ;  while  most  of  those  of  India,  intended 
for  public  purposes,  and  requiring  an  enormous  expenditure  of  labour 
and  wealth,  have  mostly  been  begun  and  finished  by  sovereign  princes 
and  religious  communities.  At  Petra  we  have  principally  the  beauty 
of  art  applied  often  legitimately  to  subdue  the  terrors  of  nature  in 
perhaps  the  most  singular  locality  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  and  the 
cunning  of  life  stamping  its  own  similitude  on  the  mouth  of  the  grave, 
to  conceal  its  loathsomeness;  but  in  India  we  have  debasing  super- 
stition enshrining  itself  in  gloom,  and  darkness,  and  mystery,  in  order 
to  overawe  its  votaries,  and  to  secure  their  reverence  and  prostration. 
The  moralist,  on  looking  into  the  empty  vaults  and  tombs  of  Idumea, 
and  seeing  that  the  very  names  of  '  the  kings  and  counsellors  of  the 
earth  which  constructed  these  desolate  places  for  themselves '  are 
forgotten,  exclaims,  '  They  are  destroyed  from  morning  to  evening ; 
they  perish  for  ever  without  any  regarding  it.  Doth  not  their  excel- 
lency in  them  go  away  ?  they  die  even  without  wisdom.'  In  entering 
into  the  dreary  and  decaying  temples  and  shrines  of  India,  he  thinks 
of  that  day  when  '  a  man  shall  cast  his  idols  of  silver  and  his  idols  of 
gold,  which  they  made  each  one  for  himself  to  worship,  to  the  moles 
and  to  the  bats ;  to  go  into  the  clefts  of  the  rocks,  and  into  the  tops  of 
the  ragged  rocks,  for  fear  of  the  Lord  and  for  the  glory  of  His  majesty, 
when  He  ariseth  to  shake  terribly  the  earth.' " 

"  BEYRUT,  30th  June. — The  Lord  has  greatly  prospered  me  both  in 
my  researches  and  labours  in  the  Holy  Land  and  Syria.  I  have  an 
outline  of  our  movements  preparing  for  the  youth  of  our  Institution. 


366  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

We  have  fixed  on  Damascus  as  the  head-quarters  of  the  Presbyterian 
mission.  It  is  within  the  bounds  of  the  Holy  Land  as  drawn  by 
Ezekiel  and  Zechariah.  It  has  a  Jewish  population  of  5000  souls, 
many  of  whom  gave  us  a  most  cordial  welcome.  Other  places  are 
either  already  occupied  by  missionaries  or  are  unsuitable  as  stations. 
The  Jewish  ladies  at  Damascus  say  that  our  ladies  must  be  '  their 
sisters.'  My  Oriental  dress  is  that  of  a  Badawee  Shaikh,  but  I  seldom 
wear  it.  The  word  England  is  the  grand  passport  both  in  the  wilder- 
ness and  in  the  city.  Through  its  might,  or  rather  through  the 
gracious  protection  of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  Mr.  Graham  and  I  passed 
about  three  weeks  ago  through  an  encampment  of  the  Badaween, 
extending  over  a  space  of  30,000  camels,  after  the  Turkish  authorities 
at  the  Jisr  Banat  Yakab  had  declared  that  we  should  be  certainly 
robbed  or  destroyed.  The  appearance  of  these  Badaween,  within  a 
day's  march  of  Damascus,  has  greatly  frightened  the  Pasha  there.  They 
are  from  the  great  Bariah.  They  brought  vividly  to  our  mind  the 
promise,  '  The  multitude  of  camels  shall  cover  thee,'  etc.  You  may 

tell that is  quite  full  of  the  project  of  having  a  mission 

established  among  them  and  the  other  Ishmaelitish  tribes. 

"  I  have  been  very  busy  since  our  return  from  Coele  Syria  in 
putting  my  notes  into  order.  I  have  gone  over  all  my  Arabic  collec- 
tions with  a  learned  man  here.  I  have  interesting  material  for  a  large 
volume.  The  Armenians  everywhere  are  in  a  most  hopeful  state.  I 
have  been  greatly  delighted  with  what  I  have  seen  of  them." 

"  BEYRUT,  May  4. — At  the  commencement  of  last  month  I  for- 
warded to  you  a  few  lines  from  Jerusalem.  I  omitted  to  mention  in 
them  that,  with  my  fellow-traveller,  Mr.  Smith  and  I  had  made  a 
short  excursion  from  the  Holy  City  to  Jericho,  the  Jordan,  and  the 
Dead  Sea.  It  afforded  us  much  personal  gratification,  as  well  as  an 
opportunity  of  comparing  the  present  appearance  of  these  and  other 
interesting  localities  with  the  sacred  narrative,  and  of  making  such 
observations  connected  with  the  geography  and  geology  of  the  country 
as  will  enable  us,  when  they  are  compared  with  our  notes  on  the  Wadi 
Arabia  to  the  south  of  the  Dead  Sea,  to  hazard  an  opinion  respecting 
different  theories  which  have  been  advanced  upon  the  destination  of 
the  Jordan  previous  to  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  Since 
leaving  Jerusalem  we  have  more  than  completed  the  inland  tour  of 
the  Holy  Land.  Every  step  of  our  progress  has  been  attended  with 
the  most  solemn  and  hallowed  associations,  and  almost  inexpressible 
interest. 

"  At  Nablus  or  Shechem,  we  took  up  our  abode  with  the  remnant 


1843.]  THE  SAMAEITANS JACOB'S  WELL.  367 

of  the  Samaritans,  which  is  now  reduced  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  souls ; 
and  we  received  from  them  much  useful  information  respecting  their 
belief  and  religious  rites  and  ceremonies.  The  old  priest  showed  us 
not  only  the  ancient  manuscripts  of  the  Pentateuch,  which  he  is  accus- 
tomed to  exhibit  to  travellers,  but  that  which  is  reckoned  to  be  of  the 
highest  antiquity,  and  which  he  declared  had  only  once  been  previously 
unfolded  before  the  eyes  of  the  Goim.  His  eldest  son  walked  with  us 
to  the  summit  of  Mount  Gerizim,  and  pointed  out  to  us  all  its  loca 
sancta  agreeably  to  the  traditions  of  his  sect.  An  assembly  of  all  the 
male  adults  and  of  most  of  the  youth  convened  to  meet  us.  We 
examined  them  respecting  the  views  entertained  of  the  Messiah.  It 
was  urged  by  them  that  the  Shiloh  of  Genesis  xlix.  10,  was  Solomon, 
to  whom  all  nations  either  yielded  obedience  or  reverence,  and  after 
whose  reign  the  sceptre  immediately  departed  from  Judah ;  and  that  it 
is  of  Joseph  that  there  is  to  spring  the  Messiah,  '  the  shepherd,  the 
stone  of  Israel.'  The  son  of  the  priest  was  much  more  candid  than 
the  father  in  admitting  the  force  of  objections  to  their  method  of  inter- 
preting the  books  of  Moses ;  and  I  am  far  mistaken  if  he  is  not  con- 
vinced that  his  people  are  involved  in  gross  error.  As  the  Samaritans 
have  preserved  the  ancient  Hebrew  character,  and  have  never  used  the 
Masoretic  points,  I  was  particularly  anxious  to  learn  from  them  their 
method  of  reading  Hebrew,  which,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  has  never 
been  inquired  into  in  modern  times ;  and  I  carefully  noted  the  peculi- 
arities of  their  pronunciation,  which  does  not  essentially  differ  from 
that  of  the  Hebrew  Chair  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  They  are 
preparing  a  letter  to  the  Beni-Israel  of  Bombay,  respecting  whom  they 
were  most  minute  in  their  inquiries ;  and  one  of  themselves  has  most 
strenuously  urged  me  to  take  him  to  England,  along  with  his  copy  of 
the  Pentateuch.  I  doubt  whether  he  will  be  permitted  to  leave  his 
native  place.  He  is  an  individual  of  great  enterprise ;  and,  attached  to 
a  rope  and  with  a  candle  in  his  hand,  he  descended,  under  our  direc- 
tion and  with  our  assistance,  into  Jacob's  Well,  and  recovered  from  it 
all  that  remains  of  Mr.  Bonar's  Bible  which  was  dropped  into  it  nearly 
four  years  ago.  We  had  a  fire  kindled  in  the  well,  the  particular 
examination  of  which  was  the  object  of  our  visit  to  it,  and  we  had  it 
thus  lighted  throughout.  It  is  exactly  seventy-five  feet  deep,  and  about 
three  yards  in  diameter.  It  is  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  and  has  marks 
about  it  of  the  highest  antiquity.  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  is  the  well 
of  which  the  Patriarch  drank,  and  his  children,  and  his  cattle ;  and  at 
which  our  Lord  held  his  remarkable  interview  with  the  woman  of 
Samaria. 


368  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

"  Sebaste,  we  could  not  but  notice  in  common  with  all  travellers, 
to  be  now  merely  '  a  heap  of  the  field/  and  '  as  plantings  of  a  vine- 
yard,' with  its  stones  '  poured  down  into  the  valley/  and  its  '  founda- 
tions discovered/  according  to  the  precise  words  of  prophecy.  Our 
first  day's  march  beyond  it  brought  us  to  the  great  plain  of  Esdraelon, 
in  which  we  visited  the  site  of  Jezreel,  and  of  several  other  towns 
mentioned  in  the  Bible.  In  the  stillness  and  seclusion  of  Nazareth  we 
spent  a  memorable  Sabbath.  From  the  top  of  Mount  Tabor  we  enjoyed 
a  most  glorious  prospect.  We  travelled  along  the  peaceful  shores  of 
the  Sea  of  Galilee,  from  its  southern  to  its  northern  extremity.  With 
the  Jews  at  Tiberias,  as  elsewhere,  we  had  the  freest  intercourse ;  and 
on  the  recommendation  of  the  Bombay  Jews  they  were  not  slow  to 
assemble  together  on  our  account.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that 
they  are  the  most  deeply  skilled  in  Hebrew  literature  of  any  of  the 
descendants  of  Abraham  with  whom  I  have  yet  met.  As  far  as 
personal  attainments  go  they  aim  at  preserving  the  renown  of  their 
predecessors.  The  town  in  which  they  reside  is  still  in  a  sad  state  of 
filth  and  dilapidation,  having  not  yet  recovered  the  effects  of  the 
dreadful  earthquake  of  1837  ;  and  with  its  broken  walls  it  is  not  con- 
sidered by  its  inmates  as  secure  from  the  depredations  of  the  Arabs. 
On  the  borders  of  its  lake  we  saw  a  few  houses  at  Mejdal,  the  village 
of  Mary  Magdalene ;  but  the  woe  has  been  fearfully  executed  against 
Bethsaida,  Chorazin,  and  Capernaum.  Though  they  were  exalted  to 
heaven  they  have  been  brought  down  to  hell ;  and,  like  others,  we 
failed  to  identify  their  sites,  'though  we  discovered  several  ruins  which 
may  correspond  with  them. 

"  From  Tiberias  we  ascended  to  Safed,  which  is  scarcely  a  day's 
journey  distant.  This  place  is  reckoned  by  the  Jews  the  fourth  of 
their  holy  cities;  and  it  is  expected  by  them  that  the  Messiah  will  be 
manifested  there,  or  at  Tiberias,  before  he  reigns  in  Jerusalem,  accord- 
ing to  the  interpretation  which  they  make  of  Isaiah  ix.  2.  We  lodged 
with  Rabbi  Samuel,  who  had  visited  Bombay  a  few  years  ago  ;  but  the 
chief  rabbi  was  much  inclined  to  demand  us  as  his  guests.  Like  the 
Jews  in  other  places  who  occupy  his  office,  he  has  the  complete  civil 
control  of  those  who  are  placed  under  his  authority — a  power  which 
he  may  easily  wield  to  the  detriment  of  religious  inquiry,  especially  in 
a  place  where  he  can  take  cognisance  of  the  movements  of  every  indi- 
vidual. There  is  a  considerable  body  of  Mussulmans  at  Safed,  but 
there  are  no  Christians. 

"  Leaving    Safed    we   crossed  the  mountains    to  the   Huleh,  the 
northern  lake  of  the  Jordan,  which  we  carefully  examined.     We  then 


1843.]  THE  JORDAN LEBANON JERUSALEM.  369 

traced  the  river  to  all  its  sources.  Near  one  of  them  we  discovered 
the  site  of  Dan,  respecting  the  precise  situation  of  which  some  doubte 
• — which  we  believe  we  are  able  to  solve — are  entertained  by  modern 
travellers.  The  stream  of  the  Jordan  here  suddenly  emerges  from  the 
ground  as  a  considerable  river.  Another  of  the  sources,  still  larger,  is 
at  a  natural  grotto  at  the  base  of  Mount  Hermon,  dedicated  in  several 
Greek  inscriptions  to  the  god  Pan,  from  whom  the  neighbouring  town 
of  Banias,  the  Cesarea  Philippi  of  the  New  Testament,  takes  its  name. 
The  most  distant,  but  not  the  most  copious  source,  to  which  we  also 
repaired,  is  at  Hasbaryah,  among  the  mountains  of  Lebanon.  At  this 
beautiful  town  we  found  a  small  colony  of  the  Jews,  as  we  had  been 
led  to  expect  from  representations  made  to  us  at  Safed,  and  we  spent 
with  them  a  Sabbath.  The  Druzes  and  Christians  of  the  place  came 
to  visit  us  in  great  numbers,  and  we  made  a  liberal  distribution  among 
them  of  books  in  Arabic.  They  told  us  that  upwards  of  a  hundred  of 
their  number  are  ready  to  become  Bratistdnti  (Protestant)  as  soon  as 
they  can  get  protection.  This  is  probably  owing  to  the  influence  of 
the  labours  of  the  excellent  American  missionaries  resident  at  the 
place  from  which  I  address  you.  From  Hasbaryah  our  journey  across 
that  '  goodly  mountain'  Lebanon  to  Beyrut  occupied  us  three  days. 
At  Der-al-Kamar,  the  capital  of  Lebanon,  we  found  a  Jewish  society 
of  above  one  hundred  and  fifty  souls." 

Dr.  Wilson  paid  two  visits  to  Jerusalem,  of  sixteen  days 
together.  Here,  as  wherever  he  went,  his  letters  to  the 
British  Consuls  from  the  Governor  of  Bombay  opened  to 
him  every  circle.  With  Mr.  Finn,  then  our  Consul  at 
Jerusalem,  he  began  an  intercourse  which  was  long  fruitful 
in  good  to  the  Jews  of  the  Holy  Land.  He  was  made  an 
honorary  member  of  the  Jerusalem  Literary  Society  on  its 
institution  a  few  years  after.  Very  close  and  beneficial  to 
both  was  his  intimacy  with  the  American  missionaries,  who 
have  done  and  are  doing  so  noble  a  work  all  over  the  Turkish 
dominion.  On  the  30th  June  he  and  Dhunjeebhoy  left 
Beyrut  for  Constantinople  by  Smyrna,  where,  in  quarantine, 
he  preached  of  the  church  and  of  Polycarp,  and  beguiled  the 
week  in  studying  modern  Greek.  During  a  fortnight's 
residence  at  Constantinople  he  continued  his  researches 
regarding  the  Eastern  Christians,  and  the  Jewish  community 

2B 


370  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

among  whom  Mr.  Schwartz  was  the  Free  Church  missionary. 
To  its  first  fruits,  two  converts  from  Judaism,  he  "simply 
administered  the  ordinance  of  baptism,  and  pronounced  the 
benediction  through  the  medium  of  Hebrew."     On  a  visit  to 
St.  Sophia  he  was  allowed  to  walk  through  the  mosque  with 
his  boots  on  and  without  a  covering,  though  challenged  by 
one  of  the  Moolahs,  four  words  in  Persian — "  but  they  are 
clean" — sufficing  to  stop  opposition.     In  truth  he  was  under 
the  auspices  of  the  British  embassy,  being  for  a  time  the 
guest  of  Sir  Stratford  Canning  at  Buyukdereh.     Among  the 
foreign  diplomatists,  he  wrote,  even  at  that  time,  the  now 
venerable  Lord  Stratford  de  Kedcliffe  "was  allowed  to  be 
the  foremost  for  ability,  influence,  and  philanthropy.     His 
attache's,  among  whom  was  a  young  nobleman,  the  name  of 
whose  house,  that  of  Napier,  is  indissolubly  associated  with 
the  science   and  literature   of  Scotland,  commanded  much 
respect."     There  Dr.  Wilson  received  letters  from  Professor 
Westergaard,  detailing  his  visit  to  the  Gabars  of  Persia,  the 
tombs   of  Darius   and   Xerxes,   and   other  antiquities.      At 
Buyukdereh  he  joined  the  Austrian  steamer  for  Yarna  and 
Constandjeh,  whence,  in  transit- vans  to  Czernavoda  for  the 
river  steamer,  the  course  lay  up  the   Danube  to  Pesth  in 
those  pre-railway  days.     At  Eustchuk  "we  observed  horses 
drawing  carts,  a  sight  to  Dhunjeebhoy  entirely  novel,  and  which 
I  myself  had  last  seen  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  fifteen  years 
ago."     Turks  and  Bulgarians  alike  repelled  the  observer  by 
their  ignorance  and  filth;  Servia  was  pronounced  "the  smallest 
State  of  Turkey  in  Europe,  but  the  most  advanced  in  enlighten- 
ment and  civilisation." 

"  1 4th  August  1843. — At  noon  we  were  as  far  as  Cladova,  where 
the  Danube  makes  its  exit  from  the  Carpathian  mountains,  through 
the  passage  which  it  has  cut  for  itself  "by  the  might  of  its  waters,  as 
the  great  drain  of  central  Europe.  Here  we  landed,  and  walked  along 
the  right  bank  of  the  river,  while  the  steamer  was  being  dragged  up 
the  rapids  by  oxen.  We  had  a  delightful  romp  of  it  along  the 


1843.]  HIS  RETURN  TO  CHRISTENDOM.  371 

mountainous  Pass  ;  and  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  pointing  out  to  my 
Parsee  friend  from  the  far  East  the  different  bushes  and  trees  of  the 
European  jungle  clothing  the  precipitous  bank — the  hazel,  the  brier, 
the  willow,  and  the  beech,  all  of  which  was  entirely  new  to  him,  and 
of  directing  his  attention  to  the  remains  of  the  great  road  constructed 
of  old  by  the  Romans,  and  which  formed  one  of  their  grandest  and 
most  useful  works.  We  crossed  over  to  Orsova,  after  a  three  hours' 
walk  ;  and  we  were  welcomed  to  Christendom,  after  having  passed 
through  the  empire  of  Muhammadanism  from  the  straits  of  Bab  el- 
Mandeb  to  the  rapids  of  the  Iron  Bar,  by  being  put  into  durance  vile, 
under  the  farcical  name  of  sanatory  guardianship.  Our  restraint 
lasted,  however,  only  for  a  few  hours  ;  and  it  soon  became  evident 
that  it  was  intended  more  for  political  than  medical  objects.  When 
the  examination  of  our  passports  showed  that  I  was  no  fugitive  Italian 
outlaw,  but  a  person  recognised  as  a  sober  subject  by  a  respectable 
Government,  and  that  Dhunjeebhoy  was  not  the  pioneer  of  some  horde 
of  barbarians  from  the  plains  of  central  Asia,  seeking  fresh  and  green 
pasturage  for  their  flocks  and  herds  in  the  parching  months  of  summer  ; 
and  when  our  deposition  had  been  taken  as  to  the  contents  of  our 
boxes,  and  all  our  books,  with  the  exception  of  a  Bible,  a  Medical 
Dictionary,  and  a  volume  of  German  Dialogues — which  last  work  we 
had  much  need  of  studying — had,  as  was  thought,  been  put  by  seal 
and  signet  alike  beyond  our  use  and  that  of  the  public,  till  their  in- 
spection by  the  censor  at  Vienna,  eager  to  peruse  a  chapter  or  two  of 
Rabbi  Saadi  Gaon's  dim  manuscript  of  the  Pentateuch,  or  to  peep  into 
the  secrets  of  a  Samaritan  marriage  covenant,  and  above  all  to  have 
the  satisfaction  of  repeating,  in  the  original  Zand,  a  Parsee  Nirang  for 
the  expulsion  of  the  devil  Nesosh  from  a  putrid  corpse,  we  were  set  at 
liberty.  On  this  occasion  Dhunjeebhoy  was,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
raised  to  the  rank  of  an  Indian  prince,  and  I  degraded  to  that  of  his 
dragoman  or  valet,  by  the  intelligent  and  observant  police." 

"  PESTH,  Sabbath,  20£/i  August. — We  were  conducted  by  a  young 
friend,  on  the  look-out  for  us,  to  the  house  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  John 
Duncan,  now  Professor  of  Oriental  Languages  in  the  New  College  of 
Edinburgh,  and  his  associates  Messrs.  Smith  and  Wingate,  in  which 
we  got  a  most  cordial  and  affectionate  welcome.  We  stayed  with  our 
friends  till  the  end  of  the  month,  enjoying  most  delightful  fellowship, 
and  witnessing  the  result  of  their  endeavours  to  bring  the  lost  sheep 
of  the  house  of  Israel  to  the  fold  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  We  found 
with  them,  what  we  so  much  wished  to  see  in  the  different  regions 
through  which  we  had  passed  in  the  East,  a  living  Christianity  shed- 


372  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSOX.  [1843. 

ding  its  light  and  love  around  it,  to  the  enlightenment  and  quickening, 
by  the  blessing  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  the  souls  both  of  Jews  and 
Gentiles.  Our  Scottish  friends  had  been  there  resident  only  for  a  few 
years,  and  they  had  been  instrumental  in  the  instruction  and  conver- 
sion of  upwards  of  a  score  of  individuals  belonging  to  the  Jewish 
community,  including  Mr.  Saphir,  a  person  of  excellent  education  and 
extensive  influence,  and  all  the  members  of  his  family,  male  and  female, 
old  and  young.  All  this  had  occurred  without  the  usual  appliances 
and  machinery  of  modern  missions,  in  connexion  with  the  school,  the 
press,  and  the  pulpit,  to  which  the  circumstances  of  the  country  did 
not  permit  a  resort,  and  simply  by  earnest  conference,  conversation,  and 
occasional  addresses  and  devotional  exercises,  animated  by  sincere  piety, 
illustrated  by  distinguished  biblical  learning,  and  impressed  by  a  holy 
walk  and  conversation.  As  the  missionaries  had  not,  and  sought  not, 
any  personal  standing  in  the  country,  the  converts  had  been  received 
into  the  communion  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Hungary,  the  creed  of 
which,  as  embodied  in  the  Helvetic  Confession,  is  quite  accordant  with 
that  of  the  Protestant  Churches  of  Britain,  and  especially  of  those  of 
the  north  of  the  island,  approved  by  the  Presbyterian  missionaries 
themselves,  already  the  agents  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 

The  formation  of  the  Mission  at  Pesth  was  entirely  owing  to  pro- 
vidential circumstances,  and  the  information  obtained  respecting  the 
numbers  of  the  Jews  there  resident,  and  the  prospect  of  openings  of 
usefulness  among  them,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Keith,  on  his  return  from  his 
first  journey  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  when  arrested  there  for  a  season 
by  the  hand  of  affliction.  Dr,  Duncan,  its  first  missionary,  was 
wondrously  qualified,  both  by  his  high  character  and  extensive  scholar- 
ship, especially  in  scriptural  and  rabbinical  literature,  to  lay  its 
foundations  ;  and  he  was  peculiarly  favoured  in  having  the  co-operation 
and  assistance  of  men  of  such  Christian  ardour,  devotedness,  and  talent, 
as  Messrs.  Smith  and  Wingate,  its  younger  members.  Mr.  Smith,  like 
Dr.  Duncan,  had  been  ordained  in  Scotland  ;  but  Mr.  Wingate  had 
been  acting  with  them  merely  as  a  lay-associate.  On  our  arrival,  three 
of  us  Scottish  ministers,  providentially  meeting  together,  formed  our- 
selves into  a  presbytery  for  the  time  being,  and  after  the  usual  trials 
of  his  qualifications — preparatory  to  his  receiving  the  concurrence  and 
appointment  of  the  Church,  and  with  the  fullest  conviction  of  his  call 
to  the  service  of  Christ,  set  him  apart  by  prayer  and  the  laying  on  of 
hands,  to  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry,  though  not  to  the  pastorate  of 
those  gathered  around  him  and  his  colleagues. 

"From   several  of  the  inhabitants  of   Pesth    we  received    much 


1843.]  PESTH BUDA — PRESBURG THE  GYPSIES.  373 

kindness  during  our  short  residence  there.  Tasner  Antal,  the  secretary 
and  friend  of  the  eminently  patriotic  and  liberal  nobleman  the  Count 
Szechenyi,  gave  us  much  of  his  time,  and  effectively  aided  us  in  all  the 
inquiries  in  which  we  sought  to  engage.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  high 
literary  attainments  ;  and  some  of  the  institutions  of  the  place  have 
originated  in  his  public  spirit.  We  were  much  interested  in  a  meeting 
of  the  Hungarian  National  Literary  Society — -which  has  a  considerable 
body  of  active  members — to  which  he  introduced  us.  The  language 
of  the  Gypsies — some  of  whom,  attending  the  fair  at  Pesth,  he  had 
previously  brought  to  us  for  examination  to  Dr.  Duncan's — was  on  that 
occasion  one  of  the  subjects  of  our  conversation.  It  was  known  to  all 
present  that  that  language  is  of  Indian  origin  ;  but  direct  testimony  on 
the  subject  was  received  with  much  interest.  The  governor  of  Tran- 
sylvania, who  was  in  the  chair,  invited  us  to  visit  him,  that  we  might 
see  some  of  these  wanderers  in  his  province,  but  our  time  did  not 
permit  us  to  accept  his  invitation.  Reference  was  made  to  the  death 
in  the  East  of  their  distinguished  member,  Korose  Csoma  Sandor,  who 
had  there  wandered  far  and  wide  in  the  fruitless  search  for  the  parent 
stock  of  the  Magyars,  and  traces  of  their  language  ;  to  his  unrivalled 
acquisitions  connected  with  the  literature  and  religion  of  the  Buddhists  ; 
to  his  Tibetan  grammar  and  dictionary  ;  and  to  the  kindness  which  he 
had  experienced  from  the  Asiatic  Society  and  the  Government  in  India. 
Mr.  Kiss,  one  of  the  members  resident  at  Buda,  a  day  or  two  after  the 
meeting,  exhibited  to  us  his  collection  of  ancient  coins  and  medals, 
which  is  rich  in  the  Asiatic  department. 

"  More  than  one  gracious  invitation  reached  us  from  the  palace  at 
Buda,  the  residence  of  distinguished  goodness  as  well  as  greatness.  On 
one  occasion,  Dhunjeebhoy  and  I  appeared  there,  by  particular  request, 
in  our  oriental  costume,  to  the  great  amusement  of  the  young  princes 
and  princesses.  We  bade  adieu  to  Pesth  on  the  31st  of  August. 
Next  morning  we  arrived  at  Presburg,  where  the  Diet  of  Hungary  was 
holding  its  Sessions.  In  the  evening  we  were  presented  to  his 
Imperial  Highness  the  Archduke  Joseph,  the  Prince  Palatine  of 
Hungary.  He  conversed  with  us  in  Latin,  the  language  which  he  was 
accustomed  to  use  while  presiding  over  the  Diet,  and  put  many  ques- 
tions to  us  respecting  India  and  the  Holy  Land,  and  other  countries  of 
the  East,  with  which,  it  was  evident,  he  had  a  very  extensive  and 
accurate  acquaintance,  as  far  as  both  their  sacred  and  profane  history 
and  geography  are  concerned.  He  expressed  the  warm  interest  which 
he  felt  in  the  progress  which  Christianity  is  making  in  different  regions 
of  the  earth,  and  congratulated  Dhunjeebhoy  on  his  embracement  of  the 


374  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

truth.  He  also  spoke  in  high  terms  of  our  friends  at  Pesth,  and  of 
what  he  had  heard  of  their  prudent  procedure.  He  entrusted  me  with 
a  message  to  their  constitutents  in  Scotland.  We  formed  a  high 
opinion  of  his  intellectual  powers  and  moral  feeling,  of  which  his 
countenance  and  demeanour,  as  well  as  language,  were  the  expression. 

"  Our  onward  journey  to  Britain,  included  in  Germany,  Vienna, 
Linz,  Ischl,  Salzburg,  Munich,  Augsburg,  Stuttgardt,  and  Carlsruhe. 
When  we  got  upon  the  Rhine  we  were  almost  at  home  among  the 
number  of  countrymen  whom  we  met  on  board  the  steamer.  Among 
these  was  a  distinguished  officer  of  the  Bombay  Presidency,  who  has 
reflected  the  highest  honour  upon  it  by  his  literary  and  scientific  efforts 
and  antiquarian  research,  and  by  his  wise  and  liberal  counsels  in  the 
governing  body  of  India — Colonel  Sykes.  We  stopped  with  him  and 
his  family  a  night  at  Mayence,  to  talk  over  matters  connected  with  the 
distant  East.  From  Mayence  we  went  to  England  by  Cologne  and 
Antwerp.  We  arrived  in  London  on  the  23d  of  September,  and  in 
the  capital  of  Scotland  on  the  4th  of  November,  in  my  case,  after  an. 
absence  of  fifteen  years  from  my  native  land,  and  a  journey  of  nine 
months  from  my  adopted  home  in  India.  You  can  imagine  the 
emotions  which  I  experienced,  when,  after  the  perils  and  vicissitudes  of 
a  long  residence  and  labour  in  foreign  climes,  and  a  pilgrimage  through 
many  lands,  both  holy  and  unholy,  I  found  my  journeyings  for  a  season 
brought  to  a  close  at  the  home  of  Christian  affection  and  love.  Only 
the  language  of  inspiration,  as  in  the  hundred  and  seventh  Psalm,  can 
form  their  expression." 

"  Any  news  about  the  Church  of  Scotland,"  had  been  his 
first  question  to  the  boatmen  who  rowed  him  ashore  at 
Dover.  "They're  all  out,  Sir,"  was  the  reply,  which  Dr. 
Wilson  often  afterwards  quoted,  adding  "  My  mind  was  made 
up.  I  would  have  gone  out  although  I  had  had  only  half-a- 
dozen  associates." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

1843-1846. 
THE  MISSIONARY  SIDE  OF  1843. 

Scotland's  Solution  of  the  Church  and  State  Difficulty — India  outside  of 
Party  Strife — Dr.  Brunton  writes  to  the  Missionaries — The  Unanimous 
Response  of  all  Evangelical  Anglo-Indians — An  Equitable  Settlement  of  the 
Mission  Property  Refused — Dr.  Wilson  in  Jerusalem — Joins  the  Church  of 
Scotland  Free — Letters  to  Robert  Nesbit,  Dr.  Brunton,  and  Dr.  Gordon— 
General  Assembly  at  Glasgow — Dr.  Wilson's  Address — Cotton  Mather's  Pre- 
diction fulfilled — First  educated  Brahman  baptised  at  Bombay — First  Caste 
Expiation — Epistle  from  American  Presbytery  of  North  India — Establish- 
ment of  the  Nagpore  Mission — Stephen  Hislop — Sir  Donald  M'Leod,  his 
Correspondence  with  Dr.  Wilson — Kaffrarian  Mission  transferred  to  Free 
Church— Dr.  Wilson  at  Oxford— At  the  May  Meetings  of  1844,  and  the 
Inverness  Assembly — Medical  Missions— Speech  on  Turkish  Atrocities — 
Indignant  Plea  for  Dhunjeebhoy's  Ordination — The  Ideal  of  a  Missionary 
Church — General  Assembly's  Farewell. 


"  I  love  the  Kirk  with  ages  hoar; 
I  love  old  ways,  but  CHRIST  far  more ; 
I  love  the  fold,  I  love  the  flock, 
But  more  my  Shepherd  and  my  Rock, 

And  the  great  Book  of  grace 

That  mirrors  His  dear  face. 

"  0  sweet  the  story  and  the  psalm, 
And  prophecy  is  healing  balm, 
Like  virgin-comb  apostle's  lips, 
Like  fate  the  grand  Apocalypse  ; 
But  sweet,  above  all  other, 
Thou  Saviour,  Friend,  and  Brother." 

Dr.  WALTER  SMITH  :  The  Bishop's  Walk. 

"  It  was  in  the  month  of  May  1843  that  the  Established  Church  of  Scot- 
land was  rent  in  twain  by  the  secession  of  those  who  formed  themselves  into 
the  Free  Church.  However  anxious  to  avoid  polemical  matter,  it  would  be 
wrong  not  to  state  what  Lord  Jeffrey's  opinion  was,  since  he  had  a  very  decided 
one,  on  this  the  greatest  event  that  had  occurred  in  Scotland  since  the  Rebellion 
in  1745,  if  not  since  the  Union.  .  .  .  His  view  was,  that,  in  theory  and 
while  matters  are  all  open,  every  pretence  of  exclusive  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction is  to  be  received  with  distrust  and  alarm;  but  that  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  which  had  owed  its  existence  to  its  defiance  of  the  civil  supremacy 
that  had  been  claimed  by  the  Stewarts,  had  been  revived  when  the  Stewarts 
were  put  down,  as  it  had  been  originally  founded  on  the  very  principle  of  its 
independence  in  spiritual  matters ;  that  in  the  modern  conflict  it  was  demand- 
ing nothing  but  what  had  immemorially  been  assumed  in  practice,  and  even 
in  judicial  practice,  to  be  its  right ;  that  instead  of  implying  ecclesiastical 
tyranny,  the  system  had  worked  so  well  that  there  never  was  a  Church  better 
fitted  for  the  people,  or  to  which  the  people  were  more  attached ;  that  though, 
as  usual  in  such  collisions,  there  were  faults  and  extravagances  on  both  sides, 
the  dispute  might  have  been  adjusted  if  Government  had  interfered  under  a 
due  intelligence  of  the  danger ;  but  that,  deluded  by  the  error  that  this  was 
not  a  question  with  the  people,  but  only  with  a  few  restless  priests,  and 
alarmed  for  English  consequences,  and  smiling  at  the  idea  of  clergymen 
renouncing  livings,  it  virtually  abdicated  its  authority,  and  never  put  itself 
into  the  state  of  mind  necessary  for  averting  a  danger  which  it  was  assured 
did  not  exist ;  that  the  calamity  might  have  been  almost  avoided  by  the  mere 
concessions  that  were  made  to  the  people  after  it  had  occurred ;  that  the 
Church,  as  expounded,  being  a  thing  that  they  had  never  understood  it  to  be, 
honest  men  who  held  this  opinion  could  do  nothing  but  leave  it ;  that  the 
heroism  with  which  this  was  done  made  him  'proud  of  his  country ;'  and  that 
the  magnificent  sacrifices  by  which,  year  after  year,  the  secession  had  been 
followed,  showed  the  strong  sincerity  and  the  genuine  Scotticism  of  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  the  movement  had  depended. " 

LORD  COCKBURN'S  Life  of  Lord  Jeffrey. 


1843.]  SPIRITUAL  HEROISM  OF  DISRUPTION  MEN.  377 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

WHEN  Dr.  Wilson  left  Bombay  he  was  appointed  a  clerical 
representative  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  India,  in  the 
General  Assembly  which  met  in  Edinburgh  on  the  18th  of 
May  1843.  On  that  day,  the  last  of  the  old  historic  Kirk, 
when  Dr.  Welsh,  the  Moderator,  read  the  protest  of  470 
ministers  who  laid  down  their  livings,  and  they  and  he,  and 
Thomas  Chalmers,  and  elders  representing  a  majority  of  its 
people,  went  forth  as  the  Church  of  Scotland  Free,  Dr.  Wilson 
was,  on  camel-back,  entering  for  the  second  time  the  city  of 
Jerusalem.  The  church's  evangelical  ministers  in  Scotland 
had  sacrificed  their  all,  how  would  its  Indian  and  Jewish 
missionaries  act  ?  The  moral  grandeur  of  the  spectacle  on 
that  18th  day  of  May,  in  the  Scottish  capital,  was  such  as  to 
extort  the  admiration  of  judges  like  Francis  Jeffrey  and  Lord 
Cockburn,1  and  of  many  who  had  no  sympathy  with  the 
spiritual  principles  involved,  but  saw  in  the  protesters  the 
legitimate  heirs  of,  and  now  the  joyous  martyrs  for,  the 
principles  of  the  Eeformation  and  Eevolution  Kirk  of  Scotland. 
The  same  party  which  did  the  wrong  on  that  day  have  since 
sought  to  undo  it,  by  abolishing  what  was  only  an  accident  of 
their  principles — lay  patronage.  Although  the  remnant  of  the 
Church  as  still  established  has  not  yet  blotted  out  what  are 
known  as  the  Eescissory  Acts,  by  which  it  endorsed  the  wrong 
and  departed  from  the  Eeformation  and  Eevolution  principle, 
yet,  so  recently  as  this  year,  it  has  by  the  mouth  of  its 
Moderator  expressed  admiration  of  the  spiritual  heroism  of 

1  See  his  Journal. 


378  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

the  men  whom  the  Courts  and  the  Legislature  drove  and 
the  minority  of  the  last  General  Assembly  barred  out  on  that 
day.  Would  the  missionaries  then,  far  away,  dim  or  would 
they  increase  the  lustre  of  that  sacrifice,  by  adhering  to  the 
protest  ?  The  chaplains  of  the  Church  thought  it  right  to 
cling  to  their  monthly  salaries  from  the  Government,  and 
not  to  forfeit  the  pensions  given  by  the  East  India  Company. 
No  one  will  judge  them.  Every  missionary,  from  Pesth  and 
Constantinople  to  Calcutta  and  Madras,  Bombay  and  Poona, 
joined  the  Church  of  Scotland  Free.  Yet  the  Kirk's  Foreign 
Mission  had  owed  its  origin  to  Dr.  Inglis,  father  of  the  present 
Lord  President  of  the  Court  of  Session,  and  was  directed  by 
Dr.  Brunton,  both  of  the  "  moderate  "  party.  The  grandeur 
of  the  testimony  was  complete.  Missionaries,  ministers,  and 
elders  united  with  the  people  in  1843,  under  the  guidance  of 
Thomas  Chalmers,  to  work  out  in  the  vexed  question  of 
Church  and  State  the  only  true  solution  of  the  freedom  of 
each  within  its  own  proper  sphere,  yet  the  respectful  alliance 
of  both,  which  Italy  has  since  accepted  ;  which  Mr.  Gladstone 
of  English  statesmen  has  most  appreciated;  and  which,  on 
the  part  of  a  spiritually  democratic  Church,  is  as  hostile  to 
the  sacerdotalism  of  the  Ultramontane  as  it  is  a  protest 
against  Csesarism. 

During  the  ten  years  which  preceded  the  crisis  of  1843, 
all  the  missionaries  and  some  of  the  chaplains  at  Bombay, 
Calcutta,  and  Madras,  sympathised  with  the  evangelical  party 
whom  conscience  ultimately  forced  out.  But  they  were  far 
removed  from  the  conflict  and  its  excitement.  And  they 
had  even  higher  work  to  do.  In  the  face  of  a  common 
enemy,  or  league  of  enemies  like  the  four  great  Cults  of 
Hindooism,  Parseeism,  Muhammadanism  and  Fetishism,  all 
non-sacerdotal  missionaries,  then  and  ever  since,  have  formed 
a  union  of  the  widest  catholicity  and  heartiest  co-operation. 
From  the  first,  too,  foreseeing  men  like  Wilson  felt  that  they 


1843.]  INDIA  OUTSIDE  OF  PARTY  STRIFE.  379 

were  laying  the  foundations  of  the  future  Church  of  India,  and 
that  it  was  an  evil  thing  to  introduce  into  it  the  purely  his- 
torical and  sectarian  controversies  of  the  warring  churches 
of  the  West.  The  best  missionary — he  who  knows  the  people 
best — is  still  a  foreigner,  and  he  and  his  translations  must  in 
time  give  way  to  an  indigenous  and  self-developing  church 
or  churches,  which  may  a  second  time  illustrate  the  Christian 
truth  of  the  saying,  "  Ex  Oriente  Lux/'  Hence  the  echoes  of 
the  Ten  Years'  Conflict,  as  it  is  called  in  Scotland,  were  some- 
what dull  in  India,  as  dull  almost  as  those  of  the  strifes  of  the 
home  churches  now  are  to  every  earnest  worker  there.  That 
India  knows  no  party  is  as  true  of  ecclesiasticism  as  of 
politics.  What  the  land-tax  shall  be  in  a  province  ?  whether 
it  shall  have  certain  primary  schools  and  village  institutions  ? 
how  far  the  historical  creeds  and  sectarian  confessions  shall 
be  bound  on  the  necks  of  the  office-bearers  of  the  native 
churches?  these  are  questions  that  aftect  millions  now  and 
hereafter.  Such  issues  as  these  are  the  true  politics  of  India. 
Although  correspondents  kept  Dr.  Wilson  well  informed 
of  the  inner  life  of  their  Kirk,  and  a  visitor  like  Dr.  Duff  in 
1840  brought  back  from  Edinburgh  the  latest  tidings,  they  and 
their  colleagues,  being  in  the  true  front  of  the  battle,  left  the 
security  of  their  base  to  be  looked  to  by  others.  And  at  the 
last  the  crisis  in  Scotland  came  with  a  rush.  The  evangelical 
party,  outraged  by  a  majority  of  eight  to  five  of  the  judges, 
could  not  believe  for  a  time  that  Parliament  would  set  the 
seal  on  such  an  interpretation  of  Scottish  statutes,  Union 
contracts,  the  Eevolution  Settlement.  Parliament,  never  very 
heroic  itself  and  affecting  a  cynical  disbelief  in  the  heroism 
of  others,  lent  a  willing  ear  to  the  small  band  of  men  of  com- 
promise, who,  unprepared  for  sacrifice  themselves,  scouted  the 
idea  of  it  in  so  many  of  their  brethren.  So  it  came  about  that, 
when  Dr.  Wilson  saw  the  last  ot  Bombay  for  a  time,  as  night 
settled  down  on  Malabar  Hill  on  the  2d  January,  he  did 


380  LIFE  OF  JOHX  WILSON.  [1343. 

not  anticipate  that  his  relations  with  Dr.  Branton  were  so 
soon  to  cease.  At  Cairo,  when  he  heard  of  the  Convocation 
of  478  of  the  1200  ordained  ministers,  who  had  consulted  all 
through  a  winter  week,  and  resolved  to  resign  their  livings 
if  justice  were  not  done  to  the  principles  of  the  Kirk,  he  must 
have  said  for  the  first  time,  as  his  colleagues  in  Bombay  ex- 
pressed it — "  What  will  remain  ?  A  Presbyterian  Establish- 
ment, but  not  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  nearly  all  that  con- 
stitutes nationality  will  have  vanished."  To  them  Dr. 
Brunton  had  written  officially,  expressing  the  anxious  wish 
that  all  would  continue  as  they  were.  The  chaplains,  Dr. 
Stevenson  and  Mr.  Cook,  afterwards  Dr.  Cook  of  Borgue,  did 
so.  The  missionaries,  Messrs.  Nesbit  and  Murray  Mitchell, 
had  kept  the  public  informed  of  the  conflict  in  Scotland 
through  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator,  and  the  receipt  of 
the  mail  announcing  the  event  of  the  18th  May  saw  them 
ministers  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  All  the  elders  and 
a  majority  of  the  members  of  St.  Andrew's  kirk  also  left  it. 

The  missionaries  had  been  in  the  habit  of  conducting  a 
service  for  Europeans  residing  at  a  distance  from  that  church 
in  the  Ambrolie  Mission -house.  That  congregation,  now 
greatly  increased,  found  accommodation  in  the  neighbouring 
chapel  of  the  American  Mission,  until  it  could  erect  the 
building  which  adorns  the  Esplanade.  The  new  college  was 
about  to  be  occupied ;  and  the  missionaries  who  had  strug- 
gled for  so  many  years  in  the  confined  and  unhealthy  rooms 
of  a  native  house  had  been  looking  forward  with  eager  eyes 
to  the  building  for  which  they  and  their  friends,  chiefly  on 
the  spot,  had  raised  the  necessary  funds.  They  did  not  enter 
it.  Not  only  so,  but  at  the  close  of  the  session  of  1843,  when 
Dr.  Brunton's  committee  established  in  it  a  new  mission, 
they  had  the  pain  of  making  over  to  the  German  agent  who 
was  sent  to  demand  the  property,  the  whole  library,  mathemati- 
cal, astronomical,  chemical,  and  other  educational  apparatus, 


1843.]  HOW  THE  DISRUPTION  LOOKED  ABROAD.  381 

which  were  the  fruit  of  their  personal  toil  and  their  friends' 
generosity.  All  was  quietly  given  up  and  carried  off,  fortu- 
nately without  any  such  scandal  as  attended  a  similar  act  of 
transference  at  Calcutta.  It  was  well  that  Dr.  Wilson  was 
spared  his  share  of  the  pain.  How  he  viewed  the  equity  of 
the  proceedings  his  correspondence  will  show.  On  him,  at 
home,  devolved  the  duty  of  furnishing  the  mission  anew,  and 
selecting  and  sending  out  the  first  Free  Church  minister.  In 
all  this  the  men  who  had  chosen  suffering  for  conscience  sake 
made  no  boast  and  no  complaint — they  were  Christian  gentle- 
men. "With  Dr.  Stevenson,  who  had  been  their  colleague  for 
some  time,  their  relations  had  been  very  close.  They  did 
not  fail  to  help  their  old  Institution,  as  engaged  with  them- 
selves in  the  one  great  contest.  And  now  there  is  a  pros- 
pect that  both  may  unite  with  the  other  evangelical  churches 
to  form  a  strong  and  catholic  Christian  College  like  Principal 
Miller's  in  Madras. 

For  upwards  of  two  months  on  the  march  from  Cairo  to 
Jerusalem,  Dr.  Wilson  had  been  without  news.  As  he  sat  in 
the  lodging-house  of  the  Greek,  Elias  of  Damascus,  in  the 
Yia  Dolorosa,  at  the  end  of  March,  and  devoured  his  letters 
and  a  file  of  papers  sent  him  by  the  British  Consul,  he 
wrote : — "  It  would  be  difficult  to  say  whether,  for  this  day 
at  least,  the  natural  Jerusalem  in  the  land  of  Israel,  or  the 
spiritual  Zion  in  the  land  of  Caledonia,  was  uppermost  in  our 
thoughts  and  feelings.  That  the  God  of  Zion  reigneth  above 
gave  us  hope  and  peace."  His  second  visit  to  Jerusalem  with 
Dr.  Graham,  and  his  distant  journey  to  Damascus  where  he 
left  that  missionary,  caused  the  time  to  pass  rapidly  till  he 
returned  to  Beyrut,  and  rested  there  for  a  fortnight.  On  the 
2d  November  1840  Dr.  Brunton  had  thus  written  to  him  : — 
"  Our  Church  fever  is  by  no  means  abated.  It  is  carrying  its 
lamentable  heats  by  far  too  much  into  private  society,  but  it 
has  not  as  yet  touched  at  all  our  committee.  Nothing  can  be 


382  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

more  harmonious  and  united  than  it  continues  to  be."  As 
the  aggression  of  the  Court  of  Session  on  the  spiritual  rights 
in  purely  spiritual  things  guaranteed  to  the  national  Church 
of  ministers,  elders,  and  people,  continued,  it  became  inevitable 
that  all  its  members  should  declare  themselves.  Thus,  on 
the  28th  April  1842,  Dr.  Brunton  met  the  otherwise  pleasing 
announcement  of  the  proposed  foundation  of  a  mission  at 
Nagpore  by  Sir  W.  Hill  by  this  response  : — "  The  only  ground 
of  doubt  is  the  present  state  of  the  Church.  I  am  forced  to 
consider  our  funds  as  in  a  very  precarious  state.  Even  if 
the  Establishment  escape  from  the  wreck  there  will  be  more 
or  less  of  very  embittered  secession.  Or,  though  things  remain 
as  they  are  now,  a  great  part  of  the  bounty  which  used  to 
flow  in  the  various  channels  of  Christian  charity,  is  directed 
to  the  interminable  lawsuits  of  the  Church.  Altogether,  our 
prospects  are  anything  but  cheering.  Human  aid  seems  of 
little  avail,  but  God  is  able  to  give  deliverance.  0  may  He 
send  it  speedily  for  His  own  name's  sake ! "  How  it  was 
sent,  and  how  it  continued  to  be  sent,  the  future  of  the  Foreign 
Missions  of  Scotland  will  reveal. 

Dr.  Wilson's  first  act  was  to  write  promptly  to  his  col- 
league, Mr.  Nesbit,  at  Bombay.  When  he  arrived  at 
Smyrna  he  despatched  to  Dr.  Brunton  his  resignation,  in 
terms  most  honourable  to  both.  At  the  same  time  he  sent 
on  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  as  Moderator,  his  formal  adherence  to 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  That  document  he  caused  to 
be  published  in  Bombay  also  : — 

"  BEYRUT,  30th  June  1843. — MY  DEAR  ROBERT. — A  month  before 
this  can  reach  you,  you  will  have  heard  of  the  rupture  which  has  taken 
place  in  the  Church  of  our  beloved  native  land.  It  was  unavoidable 
as  far  as  the  faithful  ministers  of  Christ  are  concerned  ;  and  it  will  be 
overruled,  I  doubt  not,  for  the  great  extension  of  vital  religion  through- 
out the  country.  From  Smyrna — for  which  I  sail  to-day  in  the  Aus- 
trian steamer — I  intend  to  send  in  my  adherence  as  a  minister  and 
missionary  to  the  Free  Church ;  and  I  firmly  believe  that  we  shall  all 


1843.]  JOINS  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND  FREE.  383 

be  found  in  the  same  fellowship.  Whether  any  plan  of  co-operation 
with  the  Moderates  may  now  be  practicable  or  desirable  I  do  not 
know,  though  a  few  weeks  ago  I  dropped  a  hint  to  Dr.  Brunton  on  the 
subject.  One  thing  is  evident,  we  cannot  be  divorced  from  the  coun- 
sels and  prayers  of  those  whose  principles  and  actings  have  our  con- 
scientious and  strong  approbation. 

"  The  question  connected  with  our  mission  property  in  Bombay 
must,  I  think,  be  determined  on  principles  of  equity.  It  will  be  of 
great  consequence  for  us  to  get  occupation  as  soon  as  possible  of  the 
new  buildings.  The  onus  of  legal  proceedings — should  such  be 
resorted  to — will  rest  on  the  Moderates,  if  we  are  first  in  possession. 
I  shall  propose  that  we  give  the  Moderates  a  fair  share  of  the  price 
should  they  ask  it  from  us. 

"  A  regard  to  the  souls  of  the  present  and  future  generations  of  our 
countrymen  in  India  demands  our  decided  action  in  behalf  of  the  Free 
Church.  Assemble  its  adherents  in  Bombay  and  Poona,  promise  the 
continuance  of  your  services  to  them  till  regular  pastors  be  provided, 
and  forthwith  petition  for  these  pastors.  I  hope  that  we  shall  hear  of 
your  proceedings  before  the  meeting  of  Assembly  at  Glasgow  in 
October.  I  shall  do  all  there  in  my  power  in  support  of  your  prayer. 
Tell  Captains  George  and  John  Jameson,  Archie  Graham,  Captain 
Thornbury,  Mr.  Spencer,  Mr.  Fallen,  Mr.  Martin,  and  Dr.  Malcolmson, 
etc.  etc.,  that  I  expect  them  in  particular  to  be  among  the  first  who 
will  rally  round  the  old  flag  of  the  Covenant." 

To  Dr.  BRUNTON.1 

"  SMYRNA,  July  1843. — MY  VERY  DEAR  SIR. — The  rupture  which 
has  taken  place  in  our  beloved  Church,  which  to  the  last  moment  I  had 
fondly  thought  would  have  been  averted  by  the  Government  considering 
its  righteous  claims,  or  by  both  parties  within  the  Church  agreeing  to 
uphold  at  least  its  spiritual  independence,  has  forced  me  impartially 
and  prayerfully  to  consider  to  which  of  the  two  separated  bodies  it  is 
my  duty  to  adhere.  My  decision  is  in  favour  of  the  free  protesting 
Church ;  of  the  principles  professed  and  advocated  by  which  I  have 
long  conscientiously  approved. 

"  In  these  circumstances  it  has  become  my  painful  duty  to  intimate, 
as  I  now  do,  my  withdrawal  as  a  minister  and  missionary  from  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland,  with  which  I  have  so  long  considered 
it  an  honour  and  a  privilege  to  be  connected.  I  take  this  momentous 
step  from  my  desire  to  bear  and  maintain  a  conscience  void  of  offence 

1  This  is  from  a  pencil  draft,  and  not  the  original. 


384  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

toward  God  and  man,  and,  I  trust,  without  a  breach  of  that  charity 
which  it  becomes  me  to  cherish  towards  those  with  whose  judgment 
my  own  has  been  found  at  variance.  I  take  it  with  inexpressible 
regret,  as  far  as  it  involves  the  dissolution  of  that  official  tie  which  has 
so  long  bound  me  to  yourself,  who  have  ever  treated  me  with  more 
than  paternal  kindness,  and  strengthened  my  hands  and  encouraged 
my  heart  in  the  work  of  the  Lord  more  than  I  can  declare.  I  feel  at 
this  moment  the  unfeigned  sorrow  of  a  great  bereavement,  and  it  is  my 
humble  but  fervent  prayer  that  the  Lord  may  comfort  us  both  in  the 
afflictive  circumstances  in  which  we  are  placed  in  His  inscrutable  provi- 
dence. To  the  latest  moment  of  my  life  I  can  never  forget,  or  lightly 
estimate,  the  multiplied  favours  which  I  have  experienced  at  your 
hands  ;  and  if  God  will  that  we  should  soon  meet  together,  I  shall 
tender  to  you  the  homage  of  my  unfeigned  gratitude. 

"  Your  interest  in  the  continued  prosperity  of  our  mission,  which 
you  have  done  so  much  to  advance,  will,  I  am  certain,  remain  un- 
dirninished.  In  a  postscript  attached  to  my  last  letter  I  expressed  the 
hope  that  some  plan  of  co-operation  between  the  two  sections  of  our 
Church  might  be  devised.  The  terms  on  which  the  separation  has 
taken  place,  however,  have  for  the  present  annihilated  that  hope. 
Had  the  Eesiduary  Assembly  not  consented,  as  I  humbly  but  firmly 
believe  it  has  done,  to  the  utter  overthrow  of  the  scriptural  and  con- 
stitutional liberties  of  the  Church,  the  case  might  have  been  otherwise. 
— I  am,  my  dearest  Sir,  yours  in  the  bonds  of  Christian  love  and 
gratitude,  JOHN  WILSON." 

" BILSTANEBRAE,  I2th  June  1843. 

"MY  DEAR  DR.  WILSON. — I  have  received  with  great  thankful- 
ness your  very  kind  letter  from  Beyrut.  I  rejoice  to  find  that  you 
have  safely  past  a  perilous  part  of  your  journey  without  harm,  and 
commit  you  for  the  remainder  of  it  to  the  same  protection.  Your 
packets  to  Dr.  Keith  I  delivered  immediately.  The  opportunity  indeed 
came,  before  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  perusing  them.  I  expect  that  he 
will  afford  me  that  pleasure  still  In  the  meantime  the  details  of  your 
progress  which  you  have  sent  to  myself,  will,  I  am  quite  sure,  awaken 
in  the  public  the  same  interest  which  I  felt  in  reading  them. 

"  The  calamity  which  you  anticipate  has  befallen  ;  and  with  an 
extent  and  an  exasperation  with  which  I  had  by  no  means  laid  my 
account.  Our  brethren  who  have  left  us  have  announced  their  purpose 
to  enter  immediately  on  missionary  enterprise  ;  I  have  rejected 
repeatedly,  and  unhesitatingly  declined  such  a  proposal  as  the  one 
which  you  suggest.  This  theme  I  have  uniformly  shunned  in  my 


1843.]  CORRESPONDENCE  ON  THE  DISRUPTION.  385 

correspondence  with  India,  unless  perhaps  by  a  hint  at  its  financial  bear- 
ing, because  I  could  not  see  how  the  point  in  dispute  could  in  the  least 
touch  the  status  of  our  brethren  in  India.  But,  of  course,  after  the 
Disruption  took  place,  I  was  directed  to  state  to  each  of  the  Missions 
that  the  Established  Church  was  resolved  to  go  on  with  all  of  her 
schemes  as  before,  and  counted  in  her  day  of  peril  on  the  zealous 
co-operation  of  those  whom  she  had  found  so  admirably  qualified  for 
their  work.  Eeports  are  loudly  circulated  here  that  my  appeal  comes 
too  late.  I  cannot  allow  myself  to  believe  it.  I  cannot  think  that 
those  with  whom  our  intercourse  hitherto  has  been  so  delightful  to  us, 
would  pledge  themselves,  as  they  are  said  to  have  done,  without  giving 
us  the  shadow  of  warning.  This  would  be  to  peril  to  an  enormous 
extent  the  safety  of  our  great  cause  ;  as  well  as,  in  many  other  respects, 
to  be  a  source  of  very  painful  feeling.  Even  now,  when  it  has  become 
necessary  to  make  a  direct  appeal,  I  have  in  no  one  instance  introduced 
one  word  of  personal  pleading  ;  but  you  will  easily  understand  how 
painful  my  personal  feelings  are.  May  the  Lord  Himself  direct  you  to 
that  which  is  right,  and  may  He  who  is  able  to  bring  good  out  of  evil, 
cause  this  sore  calamity  to  minister  to  the  advancement  of  His  glory 
and  of  the  gospel  cause.  It  is  not  easy  for  man  to  see  how  this  result 
is  to  be  reached  ;  but  with  Him  all  things  are  possible.  We  are  deter- 
mined, through  his  blessing,  to  persevere.  So  far  as  human  aid  avails 
we  have  the  prospect  of  abundant  funds.  But  if  works  of  the  purest 
charity  are  to  be  henceforward  channels  for  estrangement,  and  contention, 
and  strife,  my  whole  heart  shrinks  from  what  used  to  be  its  joy. 

"  I  cannot  mix  up  this   subject  with  any  other ;  indeed   I  have 
nothing  else  that  is  interesting  to  communicate.     I  need  not  say  how 
very  anxious  I  shall  be  to  hear  from  you,  nor  how  much  I  am,  your 
affectionately,  ALEX.  BRUNTON." 

"MUNICH,  I4tk  September  1843. 

"  MY  VERY  DEAR  SIR. — On  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  I  last 
addressed  you,  I  received  your  kind  letter  of  the  12th  of  June. 
Though  it  could  not  alter  the  decision,  which  I  had  intimated  to  you, 
of  my  adherence  to  the  Free  Church,  I  could  not  peruse  it  without  the 
deepest  emotion.  It  made  me  realise  in  all  its  extent  your  exceeding 
kindness  and  consideration  during  the  whole  period  of  our  official  con- 
nection, and  imparted  to  me  the  deepest  sorrow.  To  no  individual  do 
I  feel  a  stronger  attachment,  and  for  no  individual  do  I  cherish  a  more 
profound  regard  than  yourself ;  and  could  anything  of  a  personal 
nature  have  prevailed  with  me  in  my  choice  of  the  ground  which  I 

2  C 


386 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1843. 


should  occupy  after  the  rupture  in  our  beloved  Church,  I  should  have 
been  found  still  ranged  by  your  side  in  the  missionary  enterprise. 

"  I  feel  it  extremely  difficult  at  once  to  do  justice  to  the  credit 
which  I  give  to  those  from  whom  I  differ  in  my  judgment  as  to  late 
events  in  our  Church,  and  to  express  the  conviction  which  I  feel  that 
my  own  sentiments  are  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  Christ.  I  may 
be  permitted  to  say,  however,  that  I  do  think  that  the  Free  Church,  as 
far  as  constitutional  principle  is  concerned,  is  essentially  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  that  in  cleaving  to  it  I  am  only  following  out  my  ordination 
vows  according  to  my  conscientious  interpretation  of  them.  In  your 
official  correspondence  with  the  missionaries  you  shunned,  as  you 
intimate,  all  reference  to  the  existing  controversies,  except  in  their 
financial  bearing  ;  and  my  former  silence  on  the  subject  originated  in 
my  respect  for  your  own  example,  and  my  reluctance  to  hold  out  any 
threat,  however  humble,  to  those  with  whom  I  might  ultimately  be  found 
at  variance.  Though  as  a  missionary  employed  by  both  parties  I  was 
silent  in  the  discussion,  yet  as  a  member  of  the  Kirk-Session  of  Bombay 
I  uniformly  supported  non-intrusion  principles.  I  constantly  opposed 
premature  division  in  India,  and  I  have  a  letter  from  Mr.  Cook 
cordially  thanking  me  for  my  co-operation  and  friendship.  It  was  only 
when  the  Government  proved  relentless,  and  multitudes  conspired  to 
overthrow  the  spiritual  liberties  and  discipline  of  the  Church,  that  I 
was  compelled  as  a  missionary  to  give  in  my  adherence  to  the  body  of 
whose  principles  and  contendings  I  approved.  Had  your  own  chari- 
table and  peaceful  remonstrances  and  pleadings  for  upholding  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  prevailed  with  the  body  with  which  you  are 
now  associated,  the  schism  I  am  persuaded  would  not  have  occurred. 

"  Had  it  appeared  that  our  practical  operations  in  India  would 
likely  suffer  by  our  leaving  the  Establishment,  and  that  it  was  possible 
for  the  Establishment  immediately  to  supply  our  lack  of  service,  I 
should  have  considered  it  a  duty  for  us  to  give  adequate  warning  of 
our  intention  to  forsake  that  Establishment.  I  have  not  yet  seen, 
however,  that  any  of  our  operations  require  to  be  abandoned  ;  and 
should  the  Establishment  send  any  faithful  missionaries  to  India,  I,  for 
one,  shall  most  cordially  bid  them  God  speed,  rejoicing  that  they  preach 
Christ  to  the  heathen  Hindus. 

"  Perhaps  I  have  erred  in  thinking  these  few  remarks  of  explana- 
tion called  for  by  your  kind  letter,  if  so,  I  am  sure  that  you  will  excuse 
me.  I  hope  very  soon  to  see  you  in  Edinburgh  ;  and  I  confidently 
trust  that  I  shall  ever  vindicate  the  sincerity  with  which  I  subscribe 
myself,  as  of  old,  yours  most  gratefully  and  affectionately, 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Brunton.  JOHN  WILSON." 


1843.]  TO  DR.  GORDON  ON  THE  DISRUPTION.  387 

"MUNICH,  13th  September  1843. 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  GORDON. — On  the  1 9th  of  July  I  addressed  a  letter 
to  Dr.  Chalmers  expressive  of  my  adherence  to  the  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land as  a  minister  and  a  missionary.  I  have  some  fears  that  my  com- 
munication may  not  have  reached  its  destination,  as  I  have  not 
received,  as  I  had  expected,  any  reply  to  some  private  epistles  which 
went  by  the  same  post.  You  will  see  the  ground,  however,  which  I 
now  occupy,  and  understand  that  I  had  no  hesitation  whatever  about 
taking  my  station  upon  it,  though  I  did  feel  a  severe  pang  on  cutting 
asunder  the*  official  tie  which  bound  me  to  Dr.  Brunton,  of  whose 
kindness  to  us  as  missionaries  you  are  well  aware.  I  exceedingly 
rejoice  at  your  appointment  as  his  successor.  I  remember  you  with 
much  gratitude  and  respect  as  my  own  pastor  for  several  years  during 
my  attendance  at  the  University,  and  that  of  my  dear  partner  during 
her  residence  in  Edinburgh. 

"  As  soon  as  I  heard  of  the  rupture  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  I 
sent  several  letters  to  India  calling  upon  the  friends  of  the  independence 
of  the  Church  there,  to  take  measures  towards  supporting  a  ministry 
for  themselves,  both  at  Bombay  and  Poona.  I  am  quite  hopeful  that 
we  shall  find  that  we  have  many  adherents  at  both  these  places,  and 
that  we  missionaries  will  be  left  free  to  follow  out  our  own  peculiar 
duties  without  being  obliged  to  devote  so  much  of  our  time  and  atten- 
tion to  our  countrymen  as  we  have  hitherto  done.  Mr.  Mitchell  at 
Poona  is  often  overwhelmed  on  the  Lord's  Day  by  the  demands  made 
upon  him  by  the  soldiery.  The  character  of  an  evening  service  which 
we  had  in  Bombay  for  the  benefit  of  the  native  youth  understanding 
the  English  language,  was  nearly,  and  almost  as  a  matter  of  course, 
completely  changed,  when  the  body  of  the  congregation  of  St.  Andrew's 
church  forsook  it  on  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Cook. 

"  I  expect  to  be  in  London  within  the  last  week  of  this  month.  As 
the  hour  of  my  planting  my  feet  on  my  native  shores  approaches,  I  feel 
much  solemnised  by  the  thought  that  I  am  now  a  missionary  from  the 
great  heathen  continent  in  the  benighted  East,  to  the  highly-favoured 
Christian  island  of  the  West.  I  am  positively  quite  overwhelmed  in 
the  view  of  the  magnitude  of  those  claims  which  I  have  undertaken  to 
plead  ;  and  I  really  do  not  know  where  to  begin  and  how  to  end.  I 
shall  (D.V.}  however  take  my  seat  and  open  my  mouth  at  the  Assembly 
of  the  Free  Church  to  be  held  in  Glasgow  in  October.  I  shall  hasten 
to  Scotland  to  have  a  timely  conference  with  yourself  and  our  com- 
mittee, with  reference  to  this  matter.  We  must  begin  anew  by 
resolving  to  extend  our  operations.  Another  missionary,  and  one  of 


388  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

no  ordinary  qualifications,  is  imperiously  needed  at  Bombay.  The  call 
to  occupy  Nagpore  is  too  urgent  to  be  neglected.  I  am  happy  to  say 
that  dear  Dr.  Duff  entirely  concurs  with  me  in  the  view  which  I  take 
of  this  matter.*  I  have  an  admirable  letter  from  him  on  the  subject  to 
show  to  you.  But  without  reference  to  particular  openings  we  must 
go  forward.  The  field  is  the  world,  and  it  is  far  more  easy  to  conduct 
matters  on  a  large  than  a  small  scale.  To  the  Christian  Church,  as 
well  as  to  a  nation,  is  applicable  the  saying  of  Napoleon,  '  Quiconque 
n'avance  pas  est  perdu.'" 

The  General  Assembly  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland, 
which  met  at  the  end  of  May  under  Dr.  Chalmers,  had 
necessarily  to  leave  the  details  of  organisation  to  be  worked 
out  after  it  rose.  Hence  the  meeting  of  a  second  General 
Assembly  in  the  same  year,  instead  of  such  a  "  Commission  " 
of  Assembly  as  holds  quarterly  meetings  every  year  but  with 
restricted  powers.  At  Glasgow,  on  the  17th  October,  and 
with  Dr.  Thomas  Brown  of  St.  John's,  Moderator,  this  special 
Assembly  met.  The  five  months  that  had  passed  showed 
754  congregations  and  730  ministers  and  preachers.  Of  these 
465  had  given  up  their  livings  in  the  Established  Church, 
and  110  licentiates  and  others  since  licensed  to  preach,  their 
certain  appointment  to  livings.  There  remained  the  twenty 
missionaries,  thirteen  in  India  and  seven  to  the  Jews,  and  in 
due  time  the  adherence  of  all  of  these  was  announced.  When 
men  like  the  last  Marquis  of  Breadalbane ;  Mr.  Fox  Maule, 
afterwards  Earl  of  Dalhousie,  who  had  in  vain  brought  before 
the  House  of  Commons  "  the  question  of  the  spiritual  inde- 
pendence of  the  Church  and  the  rights  of  the  Christian  people 
of  Scotland;"  Mr.  Dunlop,  M.P ;  Dr.  Chalmers  and  Dr. 
Candlish  had  reported  arrangements  resulting  in  a  response 
from  the  country  to  the  amount  of  £300,000  in  that  brief 
period,  Dr.  Gordon  submitted  the  report  of  the  India  Mission. 
In  answer  to  those  friends  of  the  missionary  cause  who 
had  deprecated  the  long  defence  of  their  spiritual  rights  by 
the  people  of  Scotland,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  "not  a 


1843.]  SOLUTION  OF  CHURCH  AND  STATE  QUESTION.  389 

religious  question,"  lie  pointed  to  "  the  striking  fact  that 
the  missionaries  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  possessing  in 
an  eminent  degree  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  Chris- 
tian public  both  at  home  and  abroad,  as  holy  and  de- 
voted men  of  God  quietly  pursuing  their  pious  labours  far 
from  the  scene  of  controversy,  and  as  calm  observers  watch- 
ing from  a  distance  the  progress  of  the  conflict,  should,  the 
moment  that  conflict  ended,  have  unanimously  and  without 
hesitation  united  themselves  to  their  protesting  brethren." 
But  while  Dr.  Chalmers  could  announce  his  third  of  a 
million,  chiefly  due  to  that  unique  contribution  to  ecclesi- 
astical economics,  the  Sustentation  Fund  for  the  ministers, 
Dr.  Gordon  could,  at  that  early  stage,  when  no  appeal  had 
been  made,  report  only  £327  as  the  fund  with  which  the 
Church  nevertheless  resolved,  as  Dr.  Forbes  put  it,  to  con- 
tinue the  "  gigantic  scheme  of  Church  Extension  "  among  a 
population  which  was  then  estimated  at  160  millions,  but  will 
be  shown,  by  the  second  imperial  census  in  1881,  to  be  nearer 
260  millions  as  British  India  now  is.  The  thirteen  foreign 
missionaries  of  1843-44  have  grown  in  number  to  forty 
ordained  men,  Native  and  Scottish  ;  the  £327  of  October  1843 
and  £6402  of  the  whole  year,  to  £30,657  a-year  in  Scotland 
alone,  and  nearly  double  that  if  the  whole  annual  revenue  of 
the  Indian,  African,  and  South  Pacific  Missions  be  con- 
sidered. In  the  thirty-five  years  since  that  time  the  Church 
of  these  thirteen  missionaries  has  given  in  Scotland  alone, 
£535,000  for  foreign  missions,  and  there  is  not  a  con- 
tributor who  does  not  admit  that  the  amount  might  have 
been  and  will  yet  be  doubled.  The  conflict  of  the  ten  years 
before  1843,  and  the  struggles  of  Cameron,  the  Erskines,  and 
Gillespie  before  that,  will  not  be  exhausted  until  the  three 
great  branches  of  the  Eeformation  Kirk  of  John  Knox  are 
gathered  once  again  into  one  reconstructed  Church,  as  free 
in  its  own  legitimate  sphere  as  the  statutes  of  the  Eeforma- 


390  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

tion,  the  treaty  of  Union  and  the  Eevolution  Settlement  ac- 
knowledged it  to  be.  This  is,  thus  far,  Scotland's  contribution 
to  the  question  which  Pope  and  Emperor  in  Italy  and  Germany 
are  trying  to  work  out  on  the  hopelessly  irreconcilable,  be- 
cause intolerant,  lines  of  Ultramontane  tyranny  and  Csesar- 
ist  encroachment;  and  Dr.  Wilson  often  declared  it  to  be 
so.  The  total  freewill  offerings  of  the  members  of  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland  in  the  year  ending  31st  March  1878,  for 
all  spiritual  purposes  at  home  and  abroad,  was  £576,000.  In 
all  it  has  raised  the  sum  of  twelve  millions  sterling1  side  by 
side  with  higher  moral  aims  and  as  the  fruit  of  a  deeper 
spiritual  life. 

Dr.  Wilson's  first  speech  in  the  General  Assembly  is 
remembered  to  this  day  for  the  length  as  well  as  the  eloquence 
of  its  statements  of  fact  and  pictures  of  Oriental  superstitions 
and  missionary  life.  To  the  attitude  of  the  religions  of  the 
East  towards  the  Christian  demand  for  their  surrender  he 
happily  applied  the  remark  of  Tippoo,  when  the  British  forces 
surrounded  the  last  stronghold  of  Seringapatam — "  I  am  afraid, 
but  afraid  not  so  much  of  what  is  seen  as  of  what  is  unseen." 
First  in  the  list  of  the  principal  means  of  propagating  the 
Gospel  in  India  he  placed  those  used  by  the  Lord  and  His 
apostles,  as  he  had  done  from  the  day  he  took  possession 
of  Bombay — "  conversation,  discussion,  public  preaching, 
among  all  classes  of  men  to  whom  they  could  find  access, 
and  in  all  situations  in  which  they  could  be  advantageously 
practised."  After  an  account  of  the  work  of  his  colleagues, 

1  According  to  Mr.  W.  Holms,  M.  P. ,  himself  a  member  of  the  Established 
Church,  who  stated  in  the  House  of  Commons  debate  on  the  18th  June  1878  : 
"There  are  1517  churches  attached  to  the  Free  and  United  Presbyterian 
Churches  against  1390  attached  to  the  Established  Church.  And  these  last 
comprise  about  300  Highland  charges,  most  of  them  very  meagrely  attended. 
In  regard  to  the  money  raised  for  religious  purposes  during  the  year  1877-78, 
which  was  not  an  unfair  test  of  vitality  and  power,  £965,000  had  been  con- 
tributed by  Free  and  United  Presbyterians,  against  £385,000  by  the  Established 
Church." 


1843.]         HIS  FIRST  SPEECH  IN  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY.          391 

and  of  the  agents  of  other  Churches  in  every  case,  he  briefly 
describes  his  own : — "  I  have  declared  the  doctrine  of  the 
Cross  in  three  languages,  the  Marathee,  Hindostanee,  and 
Goojaratee,  from  the  Shirawutee  in  Canara  to  Sirohee  in 
liajpootana,  and  from  Bombay  to  Berar."  Second  in  his 
enumeration  of  agencies  came  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures 
into  the  languages  of  India,  and  the  publication  of  works  show- 
ing the  evidence  of  their  truth ;  of  "  plain  but  affectionate " 
expositions  of  their  contents ;  and  of  demonstrations  of  the 
vanity,  falsity,  and  immorality  of  the  systems  of  error  to 
which  they  are  opposed.  Again  after  a  generous  tribute  to 
the  work  of  others,  he  briefly  states  his  own,  adding,  "  it  was 
iny  privilege  to  act  for  twelve  years  as  secretary  to  the 
different  translation  committees  of  the  Bombay  Bible  Society." 
Besides  the  English,  Marathee,  Goojaratee,  Hindostanee, 
Persian,  and  Hebrew,  in  which  his  own  writings  had  appeared, 
the  missions  of  other  societies  had  translated  them  into 
Bengalee,  Hindee,  Tamul,  and  Canarese.  On  the  third  agency 
of  schools  Dr.  Wilson  gave  a  fair  and  full  summing  up  of  a 
question  much  disputed  in  this  country,  though  long  set  at 
rest  in  favour  of  education,  higher  and  lower,  by  experienced 
men  of  all  churches  in  India,  so  far  as  Hindoos,  Parsees, 
Buddhists,  and  Muhammadans,  or  the  non-aboriginal  races,  are 
concerned.  This  was  followed  by  equally  weighty  utterances 
on  the  two  questions  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the 
indigenous  Church  of  India,  native  congregations  and  native 
ministers.  Going  back  to  the  saying  of  the  New  England 
Cotton  Mather,  which  he  had  quoted  in  his  early  Life  of  Eliot, 
Dr.  Wilson  felicitously  closed  his  first  appeal  to  his  country- 
men by  the  prediction — "There  will  be  found  a  set  of 
excellent  men  in  that  reformed  and  renowned  Church  of 
Scotland,  with  whom  the  most  refined  and  extensive  essays 
to  do  good  will  become  so  natural  that  the  whole  world  will 
fare  the  better  for  them."  The  Moderator,  according  to  the 


392  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

newspapers  of  the  day,  in  an  eloquent  address  conveyed  the 
thanks  of  the  General  Assembly  to  Dr.  Wilson. 

While  he  was  yet  speaking  there  was  intelligence  on  its 
way  from  Bombay  which  gave  a  new  point  to  the  opinions  he 
so  emphatically  expressed.  An  educated  Brahman  youth, 
now  the  Eev.  Narayan  Sheshadri  and  long  one  of  the  most 
successful  ordained  ministers  in  India,  asked  to  be  baptized. 
He  was  one  of  the  few  Hindoos  who  had  clung  to  the  mission 
college  when  the  Parsee  baptisms  in  1839  produced  a  panic 
throughout  native  Bombay.  The  first  educated  Brahman 
baptized  in  the  island,  he  was  the  direct  fruit  of  the  higher 
Christian  education,  and  a  worthy  associate  of  the  two  Parsees 
who  had  anticipated  him.  Mr.  Nesbit's  loving  gentleness, 
and  Dr.  Murray  Mitchell's  efficient  instructions,  had  con- 
tinued the  good  work  begun  by  Dr.  Wilson.  It  seemed 
likely  that  both  Narayan  and  his  younger  brother  Shripat 
would  have  been  allowed  to  live  and  study  together,  holding 
kindly  intercourse  with  their  parents.  But  the  prospect  was 
too  much  for  those  who  had  recently  seen  toleration  trium- 
phant in  the  case  of  the  two  Parsees,  and  were  the  more 
determined  "  to  contest  every  inch  of  ground  with  advancing 
Christianity."  So  the  appeal  was  again  made  not  to  reason 
or  truth,  but  to  the  civil  courts,  for  Shripat  was  not  sixteen 
years  of  age.  The  "  age  of  discretion  "  rule,  the  intelligence 
and  sincerity  of  the  youth  rather  than  the  age  by  the 
horoscope  ever  difficult  to  be  proved,  were  pronounced  by 
Sir  Erskine  Perry  to  be  "  not  worth  a  farthing,"  and  Shripat 
exclaimed,  when  declared  too  young  to  exercise  the  rights 
of  conscience — "  Am  I  to  be  compelled  to  worship  idols  ? " 

The  scene  has  often  since  been  repeated  in  the  courts 
of  India,  purely  English  as  well  as  those  administering 
Hindoo  and  Muhammadan  law ;  and  legislation  has  yet,  in 
this  matter  alone  happily,  to  complete  the  little  code  securing 
bare  toleration,  which  Bentinck  and  Dalhousie  began,  and 


1843.]          FIRST  CASTE  CONCESSION  BY  THE  B RAHMANS.  393 

Sir  Henry  Maine  and  Sir  James  F.  Stephen  have  amplified. 
"To  this  sorrowful  question  of  Shripat's,"  writes  an  eye- 
witness, "  no  answer  was  returned.  Mr.  Nisbet  was  greatly 
attached  to  Shripat,  and  when  the  weeping  boy  bade  him 
farewell  as  they  quitted  the  court-house,  he  kissed  him  with 
much  affection,  and  wept  with  him."  Shripat  was  never 
allowed  to  become  a  Christian,  but  it  took  a  long  time  to 
shake  him  by  arts  such  as  Faust  has  made  the  colder  West 
believe  to  be  but  the  legendary  fictions  of  a  dark  age.  And 
since  Shripat  had  eaten  with  his  baptized  brother,  his  case 
became  the  first,  also,  of  a  long  series  of  gradually  weakening 
concessions  by  caste,  as  Christianity  practically  teaches  that 
God  has  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men.  Not  only  in 
Maharashtra,  but  in  the  holiest  conclave  at  Benares,  and 
among  the  most  exclusive  of  the  five  Koolin  clans  of  Bengal, 
the  very  practical  question  was  hotly  debated — "  Can  Shripat 
be  purified  and  restored  to  caste  ? "  Hindooism  was  on  its 
trial,  for  if  it  yielded  now  what  horror  might  not  come  next, 
till  the  one  last  bond  was  cut  in  every  link  ?  A  rich  minority 
spent  vast  sums  to  develop  dogmatically  Hindooism  into 
something  that  would  tolerate  the  Zeit-G-eist,  ease  their  own 
consciences,  and  perhaps  connive  at  their  forbidden  pleasures. 
Thus,  travelling  by  railway  was  afterwards  sacerdotally  sanc- 
tioned, for  would  not  the  pilgrim  arrive  at  his  journey's  end 
with  more  in  his  purse  ?  But  the  year  1843  was  too  early 
for  the  minority,  who  had  got  Shripat  to  swallow  the  five  pro- 
ducts of  the  cow  (its  urine,  etc.),  and  enriched  a  priest  to 
conduct  the  purification.  All  who  had  thus  combined  were 
themselves  threatened  with  excommunication,  and  the  priest 
was  as  severely  handled  as  if  he  had  been  a  Christian.  The 
"  liberal "  Brahmans  publicly  confessed  their  fault,  and  drank 
water  in  which  an  idol  had  been  washed  and  ten  Brahmans 
had  dipped  each  his  right  foot.  For  the  rest  the  scandal 
was  hushed  up,  many  feeling  it  would  have  been  better  if 


394  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

Shripat  had  never  been  dragged  before  the  English  judges.1 
While  Narayan  and  Pestonjee  continued  their  studies  for 
licence  and  ordination  in  Bombay, Dhunjeebhoy  Nourojee  com- 
pleted his  college  examinations  in  Edinburgh,  and  as  a  preacher 
and  speaker  gave  a  vivid  interest  to  the  missionary  cause  in 
Scotland. 

The  day  before  the  General  Assembly  sat  at  Glasgow  the 
Presbytery  of  Bombay  had  received  a  formal  letter  of  sym- 
pathy from  Allahabad,  one  of  the  four  presbyteries  in  north 
India  of  the  church  of  the  United  States.  The  brotherly  docu- 
ment was  signed  by  the  Eev.  J.  Warren  and  the  Rev.  J.  Owen, 
the  latter  a  learned  scholar  who  was  long  spared  to  build  up 
the  native  church.  It  has  more  than  a  curious  interest,  as  con- 
tributing the  experience  of  a  Republic  which,  itself  born  of 
the  intolerance  of  the  Tudors  and  the  Stewarts,  has  never 
found  a  difficulty  in  recognising  and  protecting  the  legiti- 
mate spiritual  independence  of  all  churches,  even  that  of 
Rome.  The  letter  anticipated  the  time,  since  realised  as  to 
co-operation,  when  all  Presbyterians  in  India  may  meet  in 
fellowship,  and  ultimately  in  General  Assembly. 

In  his  address  to  the  General  Assembly  Dr.  Wilson  de- 
clared the  most  clamant  need  of  India  to  be  the  establishment 
of  a  Christian  mission  in  its  Central  Provinces.  At  Nagpore, 
nearly  equi-distant  from  Bombay,  Calcutta,  and  Madras  about 
seven  hundred  miles,  a  Raja  of  the  Bhonsla  family  of  Marathas 
reigned,  like  the  Gaekwar  at  Baroda,  Holkar  at  Indore,  and 
Sindia  at  Gwalior.  He  had  been  guided  by  a  political 
Resident  so  able  as  Sir  Richard  Jenkins,  and  was  protected 

1  Sir  Erskine  Perry,  who  still  adorns  the  Council  of  India  by  his  ability 
and  industry,  would  probably  not  now  repeat  all  the  opinions  which  he 
gave  on  this  occasion,  and  again  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Education,  when 
he  excluded  low-caste  boys  from  the  public  schools.  See  Dr.  Wilson's  reply 
on  the  latter  point  in  The  Darkness  and  the  Dawn  in  India,  p.  83.  There  also 
will  be  found  a  Sermon  by  "  Narayan  Sheshadri,  Deshasht- Brahman,  Preacher 
of  the  Gospel,"  1853. 


1843.]  THE  NAGPORE  MISSION  AND  STEPHEN  HISLOP.  395 

by  a  combined  force  of  British  troops  and  Madras  sepoys  at 
the  adjoining  cantonment  of  Kamptee.  Stationed  there  as 
Deputy  Judge  -  Advocate  -  General,  was  a  Madras  officer, 
Captain,  now  Sir  "William  Hill,  K.C.S.I.  He  and  his  wife 
had  long  lamented  the  want  of  a  missionary  to  evangelise  the 
people.  Nor  had  their  desire  been  fulfilled  by  the  establish- 
ment, two  hundred  miles  away,  of  the  industrial  or  artisan 
mission  of  Pastor  Gossner  of  Berlin  among  the  aboriginal 
Gonds,  whose  cause  Sir  Donald  M'Leod,  when  a  district 
officer  among  them,  had  long  advocated.  On  the  death  of 
his  wife  Captain  Hill  resolved  to  devote  her  small  fortune  of 
£2000,  adding  to  it  £500,  the  whole  in  three  per  cents,  to 
the1  endowment  of  a  mission  to  the  people  of  Kamptee, 
Nagpore,  and  the  neighbourhood.  He  applied  to  Dr.  Wilson, 
in  February  1842,  as  the  missionary  best  known  to  him  by 
reputation,  offering  the  amount  for  a  Presbyterian  or  Church 
of  England  Mission.  The  fruitless  result  of  Dr.  Wilson's 
application  to  Dr.  Brunton  has  been  stated.  But  his  repre- 
sentations to  the  committee  of  the  Free  Church  met  with 
such  a  response  that  the  only  difficulty  left  was  to  secure  a 
missionary,  at  a  time  when  every  licensed  preacher,  young  and 
old,  was  required  at  home.  Happily  Stephen  Hislop  offered 
himself,  a  man,  as  it  proved,  after  Wilson's  own  heart.  Fresh 
from  a  distinguished  career  at  the  Universities  of  Glasgow 
and  Edinburgh  and  the  New  College,  he  was  an  accurate 
scholar  and  a  keen  naturalist.  He  proved  to  be  a  patient 
linguist,  a  worker  of  rare  political  insight  and  administrative 
power,  and  above  all,  an  enthusiast  in  the  spiritual  work  he 
had  undertaken.  All  the  arrangements  at  the  home  end,  for 
fitting  out  and  securing  the  success  of  the  new  mission  fell 
upon  Dr.  Wilson,  as  those  in  India  had  devolved  upon  him 
in  the  case  of  the  Irish  settlement  in  Goojarat.  But  in  spite 
of  the  need  for  rest,  and  the  general  work  of  the  Church,  he 
and  Mr.  Hislop  so  co-operated  that,  by  the  end  of  1844,  the 


396  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843. 

new  apostle — in  time  to  prove  a  martyr  by  his  death  in  the 
midst  of  duty — left  for  the  scene  of  his  labours.  We  shall 
hear  more  of  Stephen  Hislop. 

"  As  soon  as  you  get  a  regular  beginning  of  your  operations  made," 
Dr.  Wilson  wrote  to  him,  "be  sure  to  make  an  appeal  for  another 
ordained  colleague,  founded  upon  the  necessity  of  the  work,  both 
among  natives  and  Europeans.  Your  appeal  I  shall  strongly  support ; 
and  I  do  not  think  it  will  be  without  success.  The  people  will  give 
for  India,  if  our  committee  liberally  act  for  India.  I  am  day  by  day 
convinced  of  this,  as  I  see  outbreakings  of  zeal  in  different  parts  of  the 
country,  when  addresses  are  delivered.  The  late  tidings  from  Calcutta 
will  have  a  good  effect  in  strengthening  this  zeal. 

"  In  studying  the  Marathee  you  will  find  it  of  great  use  to  have 
some  children  to  catechise,  and  to  write  a  good  deal  with  your  own 
hand.  Don't  make  your  pundit  an  authority  in  every  case.  The 
most  learned  natives  greatly  neglect  the  vernaculars,  and  they  require 
to  be  systematically  trained  by  their  pupils  !  I  can  perfectly  well 
understand  the  possible  changes  which  may  occur  around'' you  in  refer- 
ence to  your  European  friends.  Should  those  who  are  now  around  you, 
however,  be  removed  from  the  station,  they  will  encourage  you  by 
their  correspondence,  and  others  in  divine  providence  will  be  raised 
up  for  your  support.  I  have  often  found  this  to  be  the  case  in 
Bombay." 

This  Nagpore  Mission  is  consecrated  by  the  memory  of 
another  Christian  official  of  the  civil  service,  as  Sir  William 
Hill  was  of  the  military — Sir  Donald  M'Leod — who,  after  a 
brilliant  career  ending  as  Lieutenant-Go vernor  of  the  Punjab, 
and  giving  his  last  days  to  philanthropic  work  in  'London,  was 
killed  when  attempting  to  enter  a  train  in  motion,  on  his  way 
to  a  meeting  of  the  Christian  Vernacular  Education  Society. 

Donald  M'Leod  was  the  man  to  whom  this  double  testi- 
mony was  borne  by  a  Eajpoot  and  a  Sikh.  Behari  Lai  Singh, 
a  Eajpoot  official  subordinate  to  him,  was  led  to  believe  that 
"  Christianity  was  something  living,"  and  ultimately  died  an 
ordained  missionary  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  England, 
by  what  he  described  as  "  the  pious  example  of  this  gentle- 


1843.]  SIR  DONALD  M'LEOD  AND  GENERAL  LAKE.  397 

man,  his  integrity,  his  disinterestedness,  his  active  benevo- 
lence.    Here  is  a  man  in  the  receipt  of  2000  or  3000  rupees 
annually;  he  spends  little  on  himself,  and  gives  away  the 
surplus  for   education — the  temporal   and   spiritual  welfare 
of  my  countrymen.     This  was  the  turning-point  of  my  reli- 
gious history,  and  led  to  my  conversion."     More  recently  a 
Sikh  declared,  "  If  all  Christians  were  like  Sir  Donald  M'Leod 
there   would  be   no  Hindoos   or    Muhammadans."     Of  the 
M'Leods  of  Assynt  and  proprietors  of  Geanies,  one  of  the 
three  great  branches  of  the  old  Norwegian  clan,  young  Donald 
passed  from  the  Edinburgh  High  School  to  Putney,  where  he 
had  Lord  Canning  and  Henry  Carre  Tucker  for  schoolfellows ; 
and  to  Haileybury,  where  he  first  won  the  admiration  of  Lord 
Lawrence.     When  at  his  first  station  of  Monghyr  in  1831,  he 
learned  from  his  countryman,  the  Eev.  A.  Leslie — the  Baptist 
missionary  who  helped  Sir  H.  Havelock — to  adopt  the  words 
of  Pascal  as  his  own  :  Eeligion  has  "  abased  me  infinitely  more 
than  unassisted  reason,  yet  without  producing  despair ;  and 
exalted  me  infinitely  more  than  pride,  yet  without  puffing  up." 
When  he  passed  to  the  Thuggee  department,  created  by  Lord 
William  Bentinck  to  put  down  organised  robbery  and  murder 
by  strangling,  and  on  to  the  administration  of  the  Saugur  and 
Nerbudda  highlands,  ceded  by  the  Marathas  in  1818,  where 
Seonee  was  his  head-quarters,1  he  was  soon  attracted  to  Dr. 
Wilson.     From  1836,  to  his  death  in  1872,  they  assisted  each 
other  in  philanthropic  enterprise  and  scholarly  research.     To 
his  first  letter  we  find  this  reply  from  Dr.  Wilson,  who  was 
six  years  his  senior : — 

"NiRA  BRIDGE,  1 5th  March  1837. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR. — I  have  been  very  long  in  answering  your  very 
kind  and  peculiarly  acceptable  and  gratifying  letter,  dated  the  2d  of 

1  See  "  Sir  Donald  M'Leod,  C.B.,  K.C.S.L  :  A  Record  of  Forty-two  Years' 
Service  in  India.  By  Major-General  Edmund  Lake,  G.S.I.  1873."  Since 
that  little  work  appeared,  General  Lake  himself,  a  man  of  like  spirit,  and 
another  ornament  of  the  Punjab  or  Lawrence  school  of  officials,  has  passed  away. 


398  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1843- 

November  last.  You  will  probably  have  found,  however,  that  I  was 
not  altogether  inattentive  to  your  commission  which  it  contained. 
I  only  regret  that  we  could  not  send  you  all  the  books  which  you 
requested.  Perhaps  some  of  those  wanting  -may  ere  long  come  in  my 
way.  The  Bombay  Asiatic  Society,  before  its  incorporation  with  the 
home  Society,  published  only  three  volumes  of  Transactions.  They 
are  now  exceedingly  scarce,  and  I  was  able  to  procure  only  the  third. 
We  publish  no  Journal,  but  send  on  papers  to  London  for  publication 
in  the  Journal  and  Transactions  of  the  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society.  The 
Agricultural  Society  of  Bombay  are  about  to  commence  the  publication 
of  a  Quarterly  Journal  of  Agriculture  and  Statistics.  If  the  pro- 
spectus, which  you  will  see  in  the  Courier,  please  you,  you  may 
perhaps  subscribe  to  it.  Martyn's  Controversies  I  hope  to  be  able  to 
procure  for  you.  I  doubt  whether  the  tract  by  Muhammad  Ali,  men- 
tioned by  Dr.  Ross  in  the  Christian  Keepsake,  be  forthcoming;  but 
I  have  written  to  Edinburgh  on  the  subject.  The  author  of  it  I  know 
to  be  a  convert  indeed  to  the  Christian  cause.  I  have  seen  many  of 
his  private  letters.  It  was  once  proposed  that  he  should  join  me  in 
Bombay,  but  the  Eussian  Government  will  not  allow  him  to  leave 
Kazan. 

"  I  cannot  give  you  an  idea  of  the  pleasure  with  which  I  viewed 
your  communication,  and  I  assure  you  that  you  may  depend  upon  my 
most  humble  but  most  zealous  endeavours  to  aid  you  in  disseminating 
useful,  but  especially  religious,  knowledge  in  this  benighted  land. 
You  will  find  the  pleasures  of  benevolent  exertion  more  than  a  com- 
pensation for  all  the  thought  and  trouble  which  it  may  cost.  Our 
holy  faith,  which  speaks  both  peace  to  the  conscience  and  purity  to 
the  heart,  is  destined  to  triumph  in  this  land  ;  and  it  requires  only  a 
very  partial  observation  to  see  that  the  sovereignty  has  been  given  to 
our*  nation  that  it  may  have  free  course  and  be  glorified.  Truth  of  all 
kinds,  to  whatever  extent  it  may  be  proposed  to  the  natives,  will  aid 
its  progress ;  but  there  are  no  obstacles  to  its  full  and  simple  announce- 
ment, and  the  advocacy  of  all  its  claims.  Your  friend  Mr.  Wilkinson, 
whose  talents  and  zeal  I  much  admire,  is  too  much  of  a  gradual 
emancipist  for  me.  I  most  cordially,  however,  bid  him  God  speed, 
except  in  so  far  as  he  makes  the  science  of  Europe  play  into  the  hands 
of  the  Brahmans,  as  is  the  case  in  Subaji  Bapu's  extraordinary  work, 
instead  of  demolishing  in  toto  the  fabric  of  their  superstitions.  I  have 
some  intention  of  taking  the  liberty  of  writing  to  him.  I  agree  with 
him  in  thinking  that  the  vernacular  languages  and  alphabets,  particu- 
larly the  Dev-Nagari,  will  be  the  most  efficient  media  of  the  instruc- 


1843.]  MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA FEMALE  EDUCATION.  399 

tion  of  the  people.  I  hold  this  opinion  with  another  not  inconsistent 
with  it,  that  the  study  of  English  will  be  the  readiest  and  most  effect- 
ual mean  of  acquiring  knowledge  by  those  who  are  to  be  teachers." 

When  in  Central  India,  Sir  Donald  M'Leod  had  given  all 
his,  at  that  time  scanty,  income  to  the  support  of  the  Berlin 
missionaries,  whom  lie  indeed  had  brought  out  to  settle 
among  the  Gonds.  Malaria  and  ignorance  of  the  country- 
slew  several  of  them,  and  the  survivors  sought  health  in 
Nagpore.  Sir  Donald  offered  to  support  them  by  sub- 
scribing not  less  than  £120  a  year  so  long  as  he  remained 
in  India. 

To  the  India  Mission,  thus  increased,  the  Free  Church 
added,  in  1844,  the  African  stations  in  Kaffraria,  offered  to  it 
by  the  Glasgow  Missionary  Society ;  and  it  soon  after  sent 
out  two  other  ministers  familiar  with  Dutch,  who  for  a 
time  conducted  missionary  operations  in  Cape  Town  itself. 
Thus  a  new  impetus  and  extension  were  given  to  a  mission 
which  has  made  the  Lovedale  Institution  not  only  the  centre 
and  head  of  all  civilising  work  among  the  natives  of  South 
Africa,  in  the  opinion  of  observers  like  Mr.  Anthony  Trollope 
and  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  but  the  base  of  that  advance  into  the 
Lake  Region  which  has  resulted  in  the  establishment  of 
the  Livingstonia  settlement  on  Nyassa.  The  cause  of  native 
female  education  also,  in  India,  made  a  fresh  start.  The 
Ladies'  Association  was  strengthened  by  the  co-operation  of 
the  Glasgow  India  Association  on  behalf  of  female  educa- 
tion in  South  Africa  up  to  1865,  when  both  combined  to 
form  the  present  invaluable  agency  which  is  carrying  light 
into  the  Zananas  of  the  most  caste-bound  families. 

Hardly  had  the  Glasgow  Assembly  risen  when  Dr.  Wilson 
found  himself  absorbed  for  a  time  in  preaching  and  addressing 
large  audiences  of  all  the  evangelical  Churches,  now  on  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland's  assertion  of  its  principles,  but  more 
frequently  on  the  missionary  claims  of  India.  In  November 


400  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1844. 

1843  he  opened  the  new  Free  Church  in  his  native  town  of 
Lander,  to  which  nearly  the  whole  community  nocked  to  hear 
the  youth  who  had  done  such  great  things  in  India.  His  old 
master,  Mr.  Paterson,  took  care  that  he  should  preside  at  the 
examination  of  the  school,  in  circumstances  very  different 
from  those  under  which  he  used,  on  his  tours,  to  stoop  under 
the  leafy  sheds  of  the  jungle  schools  of  the  Konkan,  or  the 
low  roofs  of  the  bungalows  of  Bombay  and  Surat.  Invitations 
to  preach  flowed  in  upon  him  from  all  parts,  from  Dr.  James 
Hamilton  of  London  to  Dr.  James  Lewis  and  Mr.  Thorburn 
of  Leith.  It  was  when  Dr.  Wilson  addressed  the  children  in 
St.  John's  Leith,  that  his  present  biographer  first  saw  the 
even  then  youthful  apostle,  and  heard  the  rhythmic  roll  of 
his  sentences  as  hundreds  learned  from  him  for  the  first  time 
of  the  Hindoo  idols  and  the  Parsee  fire,  of  the  scattered  Beni- 
Israel,  and  the  devil- worshippers  and  man-sacrificers  of  the 
Indian  hills. 

Dr.  Wilson  was  selected  by  his  Church  to  accompany  Dr. 
Candlish  to  England.  At  Oxford,  on  the  17th  March  1844, 
he  preached  to  the  elite  of  the  University  and  the  Church  of 
England  there  a  sermon  on  "  The  Church  Glorious  before  its 
Lord,"  from  Ephesians  v.  25-27.  The  academic  tone  of  the 
discourse,  and  the  learning  and  long  self-sacrificing  labours  of 
the  preacher,  combined  to  call  forth  a  degree  of  ecclesiastical 
appreciation  as  well  as  missionary  sympathy  which  a  local 
journalist  thus  expressed  when  it  was  published : — "  The 
great  movement  in  Scotland  is  a  new  thing  under  the  sun. 
It  is  little  less  than  a  breaking  up  and  recasting  of  a 
nation.  It  is  developing  events  which  mere  politicians  cannot 
understand,  and  which  they  will  be  unable  to  guide.  The 
freedom  of  the  Christian  Church  in  its  corporate  character 
has  been  asserted.  And,  as  we  believe,  the  further  assertion 
of  the  freedom  and  equality  of  Christian  men,  and  of  every  dis- 
tinct Christian  assembly  will  follow."  At  the  annual  meeting 


1844.]          ROMAN  CATHOLIC  AND  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS.          401 

of  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society,  Sir  George  Eose  in  the 
chair,  he  was  introduced  by  Dr.  Bunting ;  when,  answering  the 
attacks  of  the  late  Cardinal  Wiseman  on  Protestant  Missions, 
he  made  a  valuable  contribution  to  that  little-known  subject 
— Eoman  Catholic  Missions  in  India  ;  referring  to  such  Portu- 
guese authorities  as  the  Life,  of  Juan  de  Castro,  one  of  the 
earliest  Viceroys,  and  a  letter  from  John  I.  of  Portugal,  to  be 
found  in  that  classic.  "  Dr.  Wiseman  thinks  very  little  of 
Protestant  efforts,"  he  concluded,  "  but  the  Brahmans  make  a 
great  deal  of  them.  I  this  morning  read  a  tract  written 
against  Christianity  and  addressed  to  myself  by  a  Brahman. 
He  tells  his  countrymen  that,  unless  they  act  together,  all 
their  power  and  religion  are  doomed.  And,  for  the  sake  of 
the  inhabitants  of  India  who  have  been  most  marvellously 
placed  under  the  sway  of  this  Christian  country,  we  wish  the 
doom  of  Brahmanism.  Wishing  them  good,  we  must  en- 
deavour to  save  them  from  the  contaminating  and  ruining 
power  of  sin,  and  prepare  them  for  the  glories  of  heaven.  .  .  . 
Increase  your  labourers'  in  India,  and  look  for  the  divine 
blessing."  Addressing  the  Baptist  Society,  over  which  Mr. 
W.  B.  Gurney  presided,  and  the  British  Society  for  the  Jews, 
he  excited  enthusiasm  by  his  fresh  and  generous  descriptions 
of  the  labours  of  their  agents,  and  his  appeals  for  a  wide  exten- 
sion of  their  agencies.  "  The  names  of  Carey,  of  Marshman, 
and  of  Ward,  had  been  long  familiar  to  me,"  he  said  to  the 
former,  "  before  I  finished  my  studies  at  the  University.  Dr. 
Marshman  gave  me  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  before  I 
proceeded  to  India;  and  he  was  among  the  first,  with  a 
generous  heart,  to  welcome  me  to  its  shores." 

From  his  English  raid  he  hurried  back  to  be  present  as  a 
representative  of  Bombay  at  the  General  Assembly  of  1844. 
There,  at  its  successor,  and  at  the  remarkable  Assembly  of 
Inverness  in  August  1845,  when  Dr.  Macdonald  of  Ferintosh, 
the  Moderator,  preached  in  Gaelic,  from  Dr.  Wilson's  familiar 

2  D 


402  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1844. 

text — "  Those  that  have  turned  the  world  upside  down  have 
come  hither  also  " — the  Bombay  missionary  was  true  to  his 
calling.    At  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  Ireland,  held  in  1844  in  Londonderry,  he  was  received  with 
"loud  acclamations"  as  the  co-founder  of  the  mission  to  the  two 
millions  of  Kathiawar ;  and  he  afterwards  gave  much  of  his 
time  to  providing  means  for  the  extension  of  that  mission. 
At  the  Birmingham  meeting  of  the  Synod  of  the  English 
Presbyterian  Church  in  1845,  he  stood,  side  by  side  with  Mr. 
Milne  from  China,  as  a  deputy  with  Dr.  Beith  from  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland.     When,  in  the  same  year,  addressing  the 
Edinburgh  Medical  Missionary  Society,  which  has  since  done 
much  for  the  people  of  India,  he  said — "  I  recollect  being 
asked  by  Sir  Eobert  Grant,  the  late  Governor  of  Bombay,  what 
would  be  the  effect  of  dissecting  a  dead  body  in  the  Poona 
Sanscrit  College  ?     Why,  said  I,  the  first  effect  certainly  would 
be  that  the  Brahmans  would  jump  out  at  the  windows ;  and 
the  second  effect  would  be,  on  their  re-entering,  that  the  gods 
would  jump  out  also  ;  or,  in  other  words,  their  religious  pre- 
judices would  take  to  flight."     The  Grant  Medical  College  in 
Western,  and  the  Bengal  Medical  College  in  Eastern  India, 
where  a  Brahman  student  of  Dr.  Duffs  was  the  first  Hindoo 
to  dissect  the  human  subject,  have  produced  great  results. 
It  was  in  emphatic  language  that  he  induced  the  Assembly  of 
1844  to  memorialise  Her  Majesty's  Government  on  the  im- 
potence and  misrule  of  the  Ottoman  Porte  alike  in  Asia  and 
in  Europe.     Nor  did  he  spare  Kussia's  intolerance. 

In  all  Dr.  Wilson's  correspondence,  confidential  as  well  as 
public,  we  have  met  with  no  expression  of  his  opinions  more 
worthy  of  his  whole  work  for  and  relation  to  the  Native 
Church  of  India,  than  the  following  letter  on  the  ordination 
of  Dhunjeebhoy  to  Dr.  James  Buchanan,  who  had  succeeded 
Dr.  Gordon  at  the  head  of  the  Foreign  Missions  Commit- 
tee. He  pleaded,  and  with  success  finally,  for  what  at  the 


1844.]  ORGANISATION  OF  THE  NEW  MISSION.  403 

present  time  '  it  is  difficult  to  believe  even  those  most 
ignorant  of  India  could  have  doubted, — the  spiritual  and 
ecclesiastical  rights  of  the  educated  native  converts,  in  the 
light  of  justice  and  expediency,  of  the  equality  of  Presby- 
terianism  and  the  future  of  the  Indian  Church.  The  Parsee 
"  probationer "  himself,  who  had  already  become  popular  as 
a  preacher  all  over  the  country,  intimated  that,  unless  full 
evangelistic  power  and  liberty  were  conceded  to  him,  he 
would  not  enter  the  service  of  the  Free  Church,  and  Dr.  Wilson 
reported  to  Mr.  Nesbit,  "  his  firmness  in  this  respect  has  been 
admired.  We  are  for  natives  being  ordained,  after  due  pro- 
bation, as  missionaries  or  evangelists  like  ourselves," 

It  was  well  that  he  and  Dr.  W.  S.  Mackay  of  Calcutta 
happened  to  be  in  Scotland  when  their  Church,  naturally 
absorbed  in  its  domestic  and  internal  organisation,  was  also 
called  to  lay  anew  the  foundations  of  its  Foreign  Mission 
broad  and  deep.  The  missionary  buildings  at  Poona  were 
not  affected  by  the  ecclesiastical  changes,  and  those  at  Madras 
had  been  rented  only.  But  the  property  made  over  to  the 
Established  Church  had  cost  £10,000  at  Calcutta  and  £8000 
at  Bombay,  exclusive  of  libraries  and  apparatus.  The  duty  of 
raising  £20,000  for  a  new  start  fell  upon  Dr.  Wilson  and  Dr. 
W.  S.  Mackay,  then  on  sick  leave  from  Calcutta.  Plow 
generously  the  whole  India  Mission  was  aided,  not  so  much 
by  the  public  effort  as  by  private  and  anonymous  gifts,  the 
missionary  correspondence  of  the  period  reveals.  Even  more 
remarkable  was  the  liberality  of  Christian  men  of  all  sects  in 
India  itself.  To  that  the  Free  churches  in  Bombay  and 
Calcutta  owe  their  existence. 

"  28th  November  1846. — MY  DEAR  DR.  BUCHANAN. — As  I  have  to 
go  over  to  Fife  to  address  a  missionary  meeting  to-night,  and  to  assist 
at  a  sacrament  to-morrow,  and  cannot  get  back  in  time  for  your  con- 
sultation on  Monday,  I  shall  mention  to  you  in  writing  the  opinion 
which  I  have  formed  relative  to  the  ordination  of  our  dear  young 
friend  Dlumjeebhoy.  To  the  opinion  which  I  expressed  at  the  last 


404  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1846. 

meeting  of  our  India  Mission  Committee  I  am  disposed  still  to  adhere. 
I  think  it  expedient  that  Dhunjeebhoy's  ordination  should  take  place 
in  this  country.  I  believe  him  to  be  as  highly  qualified  for  the 
ministry  of  Christ  in  India,  both  spiritually  and  mentally,  as  any 
individual  on  whom  our  presbyteries  can  lay  their  hands  j  and  I 
believe  that  the  Christian  meekness,  courage,  constancy,  and  self-denial, 
which  he  has  displayed  under  the  frowns  and  threats  and  assaults  of 
numerous  mobs  and  conclaves  in  India,  and  the  smiles  and  plaudits 
and  blandishments  of  numerous  friends  and  coteries  in  Scotland,  have 
formed  a  probation  of  his  character  which  should  fully  satisfy  the 
most  scrupulous  anxiety.  How  we  can  call  one  of  our  own  white- 
faced  students  from  our  Divinity  Hall,  and  ordain  him  per  saltum 
to  the  ministry  among  a  people  of  whom  he  understands  nothing 
and  knows  nothing,  as  we  have  more  than  once  done,  and  pass 
over  a  black-faced  student,  duly  licensed  and  qualified,  and  tried 
by  extraordinary  providences,  and  bone  of  the  bone  and  flesh  of 
the  flesh  and  every  way  cognisant  of  the  people  to  whom  he  is 
to  be  sent,  I  do  not  see  ;  although  certainly  I  do  think,  with  our 
venerable  and  esteemed  father  Dr.  Gordon,  that  we  should  look 
to  the  possible  effect  of  our  procedure  as  forming  a  precedent  in 
regard  to  other  cases  of  native  preachers  in  India,  which  we  may  not 
be  so  easily  able  to  dispose  of  as  at  present. 

"  Referring  to  the  matter  of  precedent,  however,  I  do  not  see  that 
we  should  be  afraid  of  consequences.  The  sanction  of  our  Foreign 
Mission  Committee  is  by  the  laws  of  the  Church  a  preliminary  to  any 
ordination  by  the  presbyteries  in  India.  That  Committee,  I  presume, 
is  quite  ready  to  try  every  case  by  its  own  merits,  after  it  is  informed 
of  the  position  and  attainments  of  parties  by  those  who  are  particu- 
larly acquainted  with  them  in  India.  Hormasdjee  is  in  the  same  cir- 
cumstances as  Dhunjeebhoy,  and  I  presume  he  must  be  treated  in  the 
same  way  in  the  usual  course  of  procedure.  I  do  not  think  that  any 
of  the  other  licentiates  in  India  yet  occupy  this  position,  for  the 
advanced  converts  and  students  at  Calcutta  have  been  removed  to  the 
ministry  of  the  upper  sanctuary.  If,  however,  there  are  any  other  of  the 
students  or  licentiates  in  a  proper  state  of  forwardness  and  personal 
probation,  let  us,  on  being  duly  satisfied  on  these  heads,  and  requested 
by  themselves  and  the  missionaries  in  India,  give  the  warrant  for  their 
ordination,  and  that  with  fervent  gratitude  to  the  Lord  of  the  harvest, 
who  is  hearing  our  prayers,  and  thrusting  forth  labourers  to  his  own 
vineyard. 

"  With  regard  to  the  opinion  incidentally  expressed  by  one  of  our 


1846.]  ORDINATION  OF  NATIVE  MISSIONARIES.  405 

friends  at  our  last  meeting,  that  the  native  missionaries  should  be 
ordained  only  to  a  specific  pastoral  charge,  I  would  beg  respectfully  to 
say  that  eighteen  years'  experience  and  observation  as  an  Indian  mis- 
sionary, as  well  as  considerations  of  general  Christian  expediency,  lead 
me  to  come  to  an  entirely  different  conclusion.  I  believe  that  the 
Christian  Church  would  grievously  retard  the  progress  of  the  Kedeemer's 
cause  in  India  were  it  to  act  on  this  principle.  Native  ministers,  with 
a  full  evangelistic  commission  such  as  we  ourselves  receive  as  mis- 
sionaries, and  with  full  powers  to  enter  into  those  doors  of  usefulness 
which  may  be  opened  up  to  them  on  their  own  knocking,  are,  under 
Christ,  my  great  hope  for  the  evangelisation  of  India.  I  should  not, 
in  their  case  certainly,  put  the  particular  before  the  general,  but  the 
general  before  the  particular.  I  would  give  to  them  a  very  extensive 
latitude,  that  they  and  we  may  have  the  benefit  of  a  very  extensive 
experience.  I  would  give  them  an  apostolical  liberty,  with  our  respon- 
sibility for  life  and  doctrine.  I  have  not  a  particle  of  fear  of  their 
abusing  that  liberty.  The  more  we  trust  them  the  more  they  will 
trust  and  defer  to  ourselves.  Centralisation,  to  the  extent  that  it  is 
desirable,  will  in  due  time  come.  I  have  not  the  remotest  suspicion 
that  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  will  lay  down  the  doctrine  and  estab- 
lish the  practice  that  the  natives  of  India  are  to  be  ordained  only  as 
pastors ;  but  were  it  to  do  so,  I  am  persuaded  that  some  vacancies  would 
occur  in  its  present  establishment  of  European  missionaries.  A  caste 
disqualification  would  make  our  indignation  boil  above  the  Pleiades." 

As  the  Sustenation  Fund,  devised  by  the  greatest  writer  and 
most  practical  worker  in  the  field  of  Christian  and  Philan- 
thropic Economics,  Dr.  Chalmers,  became  consolidated  for  the 
support  of  the  home  ministers,  it  would  have  been  well  if  a 
somewhat  similar  self-acting  and  self-developing  arrangement 
had  been  then  made  proportionately  for  the  growing  foreign 
missions.  This  was  afterwards  done  in  the  form  of  an 
association  in  every  congregation  able  to  give  more  than  an 
annual  offertory.  But  Dr.  Wilson  seems  to  have  attempted 
the  institution  of  a  system  which,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  all  the 
churches  will  yet  adopt  in  the  place  of,  or  in  addition  to  desult- 
ory offerings.  He  induced  Dr.  Candlish  and  Dr.  Gordon  to 
arrange  that  St.  George's  and  the  New  North  congregations 
should  provide  the  support  of  the  two  Parsee  missionaries. 


406  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1846, 

The  former,  which  gave  £63  for  the  object  in  1840,  now 
subscribes  to  the  Foreign  Mission  Fund  about  £600  of  its 
whole  annual  contributions  of  £1  OjOOO.1  If  it  undertook  directly 
to  provide  for  two  missionaries,  who  would  report  to  it  as 
well  as  to  the  central  committee,  the  congregational  life  would 
be  completed  on  its  missionary  as  well  as  home  side ;  while 
the  missionaries  would  be  brought  into  closer  contact  with  the 
churches  and  with  their  youth,  who  are  to  be  their  successors. 
Only  where  each  congregation,  able  to  raise  at  least  £200  a 
year  in  addition  to  the  income  of  its  own  minister,  thus  does 
its  duty  to  the  Master  by  sending  forth  an  ordained  Native 
or  European  missionary,  will  the  wide  fields  of  Heathenism 
and  Muhammadanism  be  adequately  overtaken,  and  the 
churches  of  Christendom  prove  their  spiritual  loyalty. 
When  that  union  of  sects,  for  which  Dr.  Wilson  longed, 
conies  about,  so  that  ecclesiastical  waste  and  suicidal  divisions 
shall  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  this  ideal  may  be  reached. 

It  was  in  the  year  1844,  when  he  was  forty  years  of  age, 
that  Dr.  Wilson  sat  to  Mr.  James  Caw  for  that  portrait  which 
has  since  adorned  the  walls  of  the  Free  Church  College  in 
Bombay.  It  was  painted  at  the  request  of  the  students,  and 
was  pronounced  a  good  likeness  of  the  founder  of  the  mission 
there.  A  fine  mezzotint  engraving  by  Mr.  Henry  Haig  was 
made  for  the  public  at  home.  The  General  Assembly  of  1846 
formally  declared  that  they  "  rejoiced  in  the  prospect  of  Dr. 
Wilson's  return  to  Bombay  in  renovated  health.  They  give 
him  also  the  assurance  of  their  sympathy  and  prayers,  and 
trust  that  he  may  be  long  spared  to  prosecute  his  important 
labours  as  a  missionary  to  the  heathen."  They  recommended 
all  ministers  of  the  Church,  "  at  least  once  a  year,  about  the 
opening  of  the  college  session"  in  November,  to  bring  the 
claims  of  foreign  missions  specially  before  their  congregations, 
and  "  to  enforce  upon  them  the  duties  of  prayer  and  self-denial." 

1  St.  George's,  Edinburgh:  A  History;  by  Mr.  David  Maclagan,  F.R.S.E.   1876. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

1845-1847. 

AMONG  BOOKS— SECOND  MARRIAGE— OVER  EUROPE  TO 
BOMBAY. 

Lieut. -Colonel  Jervis,  F.R.S.,  and  intercourse  with  Civil  and  Military 
Officers — Establishment  of  the  North  British  Review — Reception  of  Dr. 
Wilson's  Works  by  the  learned  of  Europe — Elected  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society — Correspondence  with  Colonel  Jervis — Baron  Hiigel,  the  modern 
Marco  Polo — First  Attempts  to  introduce  Lithography  into  India — First 
Proposal  of  Postal  Money  Order  System— Death  of  Dr.  Welsh— Writers  in 
the  North  British  Review — Letters  to  Westergaard  and  Hugh  Miller,  and  from 
Dr.  Falconer — Second  Marriage — Isabella  Dennistoun  of  Dennistoun — A 
learned  Jewish  Convert — Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson  leave  for  India — Lassen  and 
William  Erskine  at  Bonn — Researches  in  Egypt — Welcomes  at  Bombay — 
Lord  Hardinge  announces  Suppression  of  Suttee,  Infanticide,  and  Slavery, 
in  many  Native  States — George  Clerk  and  Memorial  Church  of  Colaba — 
Gaikwar  of  Baroda  dies. 


"  He  that  is  weary,  let  him  sit. 

My  soul  would  stirre 
And  trade  in  courtesies  and  wit, 

Quitting  the  furre 
To  cold  complexions  needing  it. 

"  Man  is  no  starre,  "but  a  quick  coal 

Of  mortall  fire, 
Who  blows  it  not,  nor  doth  controll 

A  faint  desire, 
Lets  his  own  ashes  choke  his  soul. 

"  Life  is  a  businesse,  not  good  cheer  ; 

Ever  in  warres. 
The  sunne  still  shineth  there  or  here, 

Whereas  the  starres 
Watch  an  advantage  to  appeare. 

"  Oh  that  I  were  an  orange-tree, 

That  busie  plant ! 
Then  should  I  ever  laden  be, 

And  never  want 
Some  fruit  for  him  that  dressed  me." 


GEORGE  HERBERT  :  The  Temple. 


1845.]  PHILANTHROPIC  LAYMEN  IN  INDIA.  409 


CHAPTEE    XIII. 

WE  have  seen  how,  throughout  the  first  period  of  Dr.  Wilson's 
Indian  career,  he  was  encouraged  and  supported  in  his  purely 
missionary  as  well  as  philanthropic  and  scientific  labours  by 
laymen,  chiefly  civil  and  military  officers,  who  united  with 
him  in  dedicating  to  the  very  highest  ends  their  intellectual 
powers,  their  social  influence,  and  their  Christian  culture. 
Even  at  that  early  time  he  became  the  centre  and  the 
stimulus  of  the  best  society  in  Western  India.  One  of  the 
most  remarkable  of  the  officers  with  whom  he  formed  a  very 
close  friendship  was  Lieutenant-Colonel  T.  B.  Jervis,  F.K.S. 
To  his  educational  work  in  the  Konkan,  and  erection  of  the 
Bombay  College,  transferred  on  its  completion  to  the  Estab- 
lished Kirk,  we  have  already  referred.  Born  in  India,  and 
with  a  hereditary  interest  in  its  people  like  the  majority  of 
the  Anglo-Indian  officials  under  the  East  India  Company, 
young  Jervis  gained  extraordinary  honours  at  Addiscombe 
and  entered  the  Engineer  Corps,  became  superintending 
engineer  of  the  Southern  Konkan  which  had  just  been  made 
British  territory,  and  surveyed  that  large  tract  of  Western 
India.  His  maps  still  form  part  of  the  uncompleted  Atlas 
of  India.  He  made  such  a  reputation  that,  when  in  England 
in  1837,  he  was  nominated  successor  to  Sir  George  Everest 
as  Surveyor-General  of  India,  an  appointment  he  did  not 
take  up.  On  finally  retiring  from  the  service,  shortly 
before  Dr.  Wilson's  departure  from  Bombay,  he  received  a 
letter  of  touching  farewell,  and  a  copy  of  the  best  edition  of 
the  Bible  which  could  then  be  procured,  "  as  a  small  token  of 


410 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1845. 


Christian  affection  and  gratitude  for  his  admirable  design  for 
the  General  Assembly's  Institution  in  Bombay." 

With  no  one  was  Dr.  Wilson  in  such  close  correspond- 
ence all  through  his  visit  to  Great  Britain,  especially  on 
literary  and  scientific  undertakings  for  the  good  of  India,  as 
with  Colonel  Jervis.  While  the  missionary  was  striving  to 
devote  every  hour  he  could  snatch  from  ecclesiastical  engage- 
ments to  the  preparation  of  his  elaborate  work,  The  Lands  of 
the  Bible,  the  engineer  was  projecting  a  series  of  Memoirs, 
Voyages,  and  Travels,  original  and  translated,  illustrative  of 
the  geography  and  statistics  of  Asia.  The  collection  would 
have  formed  a  modern  Hakluyt,  and  is  still  a  desideratum  in 
European  literature,  in  spite  of  similarly  fragmentary  attempts 
to  supply  it  by  both  German  and  English  editors,  for  the 
health  and  the  resources  of  Colonel  Jervis  did  not  allow 
him  to  do  more  than  issue  in  1845  a  first  volume — Baron 
Charles  Hiigel's  Kaschmir  und  das  Eeich  der  Siek,  in  an 
English  dress. 

The  two  friends  were  farther  interested  in  the  success  of 
the  North  British  Review.  Evangelical  men  of  all  parties 
in  Scotland  had,  even  before  -the  events  of  1843,  desired  to 
see  established  a  Quarterly  which,  to  the  literary  ability  of 
the  Edinburgh  Review  and  its  great  rival,  would  add  the  dis- 
cussion of  theological  questions  which  were  then  beginning 
to  occupy  thoughtful  minds — no  less  in  England,  where  the 
Tractarian  movement  was  at  its  height,  than  in  Scotland. 
Men  like  Drs.  Chalmers  and  Welsh,  Cunningham  and  Fleming, 
in  the  Scottish  Universities  and  Church,  and  writers  like 
Sir  David  Brewster,  Isaac  Taylor,  and  Merle  D'Aubigne, 
formed  a  nucleus  to  whom  only  the  leisure  of  letters  was 
wanting  in  those  stirring  times,  to  make  success  as  lasting 
as  it  proved  to  be  brilliant  for  a  time.  For  the  North  British 
Review  anticipated  that  discussion  of  the  deepest  theological 
problems,  and  of  all  questions  on  the  platform  of  the  highest 


1845.]      THE  "NORTH  BRITISH"  AND  "CALCUTTA"  REVIEWS.    411 

principles,  which  has  of  late  marked  the  higher  periodi- 
cal literature.  In  the  thirty  years  of  its  existence  it  more 
than  justified  the  other  boast  with  which  its  prospectus  was 
concluded:  "The  latest  discoveries  in  mental  and  physical 
science  will  be  regularly  unfolded  by  men  themselves  of  the 
highest  inventive  genius.  In  all  departments  individuals  of 
the  greatest  celebrity  in  this  and  other  countries  have  pro- 
mised to  adorn  our  pages  with  their  contributions."  Dr.  Welsh 
at  once  laid  hold  of  Dr.  Wilson  for  his  staff.  It  should  be 
noted  that  the  same  month  of  May  1844  which  saw  the  first 
number  of  the  Scottish  Keview,  witnessed  the  birth  of  another 
Quarterly  which  has  a  history  in  the  East  quite  as  remark- 
able as  that  of  the  Edinburgh  in  the  West — the  Calcutta 
Review,  edited,  after  its  first  number,  by  Dr.  Duff,  and  still 
prospering.1  At  a  much  later  period,  and  for  some  time,  Dr. 
Wilson  contributed  articles  to  the  Bombay  Quarterly  Eeview 
and  to  the  British  and  Foreign  Evangelical  Eeview. 

The  reputation  which  Dr.  Wilson  had  gained  in  the  circles 
of  the  learned  of  Europe  by  his  work  on  the  Parsee  Eeligion 
was  increased  when  his  Lands  of  the  Bible  appeared,  and, 
during  his  occasional  visits  to  London,  caused  his  society  to 
be  sought  by  men  like  Lord  Castlereagh,  afterwards  fourth 
Marquis  of  Londonderry,  who  had  himself  been  travelling  in 
the  East.  In  the  addresses  of  1869  and  18*70  to  Dr.  Wilson, 
the  public  and  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bombay  thus  sum  up 
contemporary  opinions  on  these  two  books  : — 

"Your  learned  and  comprehensive  work  on  the  religion  of  the 
Parsees,  published  on  the  eve  of  your  journey  to  Europe  in  1843,  was 
recognised  by  the  few  scholars  then  competent  to  form  an  opinion  as 
the  most  complete  investigation  into  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Parsees 
that  had  up  to  that  time  appeared.  A  distinguished  Oriental  scholar, 
whose  learned  labours  have  reflected  honour  on  Bombay,  Mr.  William 

1  See  an  article  on  "  The  First  Twenty  Years  of  the  Calcutta  Review"  in 
the  number  for  July  1874. 


412  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1845. 

Erskine  urged  you,  in  reference  to  this  and  other  works,  '  to  go  on  and 
enrich  the  world  of  letters,  while  you  think  chiefly  of  the  religious 
world  and  religious  benefit  of  the  human  race  ;'  and  Professor  Wester- 
gaard  of  Copenhagen,  whose  own  valuable  labours  in  this  branch  of 
Oriental  research  are  so  well  known,  thankfully  recognised  the  value  of 
the  services  you  had  rendered  himself,  which  he  said  he  valued  the 
more  from  the  prominent  place  you  hold  amongst  Oriental  philologists, 
and  for  your  having  signally  contributed  to  the  furtherance  of  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Zoroastrian  lore.  Your  great  work,  the  Lands  of  the 
Bible,  was  hailed  on  its  appearance,  as  being  in  itself  a  complete 
storehouse  of  biblical  research,  and  as  abounding  in  materials  illus- 
trating the  state  of  the  Christian  sects  and  churches  of  the  East,  of 
the  Eastern  Jews  and  Samaritans,  of  Mahomedanism,  and  the  numerous 
questions  connected  with  the  ancient  people  and  languages  of  Palestine, 
Syria,  and  other  parts  of  the  East.  The  President  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society,  in  directing  the  attention  of  the  learned  to 
what  was  new  and  important  in  the  work  specially  pertaining  to 
questions  of  geographical,  topographical,  and  antiquarian  research, 
remarked  how  much  could  be  done  in  gleaning  what  was  new  in 
such  countries  as  those  you  had  travelled  in,  by  travellers  who 
enjoyed,  as  you  did,  the  advantage  of  understanding  the  language  of 
the  people,  and  of  entering  into  the  spirit  of  the  manners  of  the 
East." 

Of  The  Parsi  ^Religion  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Paris  thus 
wrote  in  their  Eeport  of  1843  :— 

"  Tous  ces  ouvrages  sont  destines  a  servir  1'eclaircissement  d'une 
grande  controverse  qui  s'est  elevee,  a  Bombay,  entre  les  missionaires 
protestants  et  les  Parsis,  et  qui,  dirigee,  du  cote  Chretien,  par  un 
homme  savant  et  intelligent  comme  M.  Wilson,  a  donne  naissance  a 
plusieurs  ecrits  remarquables  dont  la  science  doit  tirer  profit." 

But  the  practical  criticism  which  Dr.  Wilson  valued  most 
was  the  blue  riband  of  science  in  Great  Britain.  On  the  *7th 
February  1845  he  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Eoyal  Society. 

Dr.  WILSON  to  Colonel  JERVIS. 

"EDINBURGH,  IQth  August  1844. 

"  MY  DEAR  FRIEND — This  is  the  first  moment  of  leisure  which  I 
have  found  to  write  to  a  friend  since  my  return  from  Ireland.  I  have 
not,  however,  been  unmindful  of  the  matters  referred  to  in  your  letter 


1845.]          ARTICLES  IN  THE  "NORTH  BRITISH  REVIEW."  413 

of  last  month.  Owing  to  Dr.  Welsh's  absence  from  Edinburgh  I  had  it 
not  in  my  power  to  put  your  letter  in  his  hands  till  a  couple  of  days 
ago,  when  I  was  dining  with  him,  along  with  Sir  David  Brewster. 
He  received  it  with  much  satisfaction,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  he 
will  write  to  you  accepting  your  proposal.  I  am  happy  to  say  that  the 
second  number  of  the  North  British  Review  is  as  great  a  favourite  as 
the  first,  and  that  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  of  the  complete 
success  of  the  undertaking.  My  article,  you  will  see,  was  in  time. 
(On  The  Vishnu  Purana,  translated  by  H.  H.  Wilson,  1840.) 

"EDINBURGH,  11  tli  November  1844. — MY  DEAR  MAJOR  JERVIS. — 
I  begin  with  Baron  Hiigel. l  Your  Preface  is  in  every  respect  suitable. 
Do  not  allow  a  day  to  pass  without  sending  me  a  copy  for  the  Review, 
as  all  articles  for  the  next  number  of  the  Review  should  be  in  Dr. 
Welsh's  hands  by  the  1st  December — December  being  the  printing 
month.  Send  me  too  the  original  of  Hugel  and  the  number  of  the 
Foreign  Quarterly.  The  model  of  the  planet  Saturn  which  you  gave  me 
in  London  I  left  with  Mr.  Laurie  to  forward  to  Bombay." 

Colonel  JERVIS  to  Dr.  WILSON. 

"  9  KEGENT'S  VILLAS,  AVENUE  EOAD,  30^  December  1844. 

"  MY  DEAR  FRIEND. — I  have  got  a  beautiful  woodcut  of  the  sun 

rising  between  the  hills  of  Caranja,  over  the  harbour  and  island  of 

Bombay  and  Back  Bay,  as  viewed  from  Malabar  Hill,  near  the  Rev.  Dr. 

Wilson's  house,  to  be  the  heading  of  an  instructive  illustrated  journal 

1  The  Austrian  Baron  Hiigel,  extolled  by- continental  writers  as  "the 
second  Marco  Polo,"  and  recently  far  distanced  by  the  Prussian  Baron  von 
Kichthofen,  spent  six  years  in  travelling  from  Greece  by  Syria  to  Egypt 
across  India  to  Ceylon,  Australia,  and  China.  Returning  to  India  he  passed 
in  a  continuous  journey  from  Cape  Comorin  to  Kashmere  in  1835,  where 
he  was  protected  by  Runjeet  Singh.  His  spoils  have  enriched  the  Imperial 
Library  and  Museum  at  Vienna,  which,  to  the  present  day,  shows  a  keen 
interest  in  Oriental  research  and  commerce,  witness  its  Oriental  Museum, 
of  which  A.  Von  Scala  is  director.  When  in  Kashmere  Baron  Hiigel  and  Mr. 
Vigne  set  up  this  inscription  in  black  marble  on  the  Char  Chinar  Island — 
"Three  travellers  in  Kashmir,  on  the  18th  November  1835,  the  Baron  Ch. 
Hiigel  from  Jamu  ;  Th.  G. .  Vigne  from  Iskardu  ;  and  Dr.  John  Henderson 
from  Ladak,  have  caused  the  names  of  all  the  travellers  who  preceded  them 
in  Kashmir  to  be  engraven  on  this  stone.  Bernier,  1663.  Forster,  1786. 
Moorcroft,  Guthrie,  and  Trebeck,  1823.  Victor  Jacquemont,  1831.  Joseph 
Wolff,  1832."  Hieronymus  Xavier  was  the  first  European  who  penetrated  to 
Kashmere,  but  his  remarks,  as  given  in  what  Dr.  Wilson  calls  that  very  scarce 
work,  Hajus  de  Rebus  Japonicis,  Indicis,  etc.  (Antwerp,  1605),  are  pronounced 
by  Baron  Hiigel  to  be  "  of  no  particular  value." 


414  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1845. 

for  general  circulation  among  the  natives  of  India.     Will  you  write  an 
article  for  it  ?     I  propose  in  every  case  to  give  the  writer's  names." 

"  I2th  February  1845. — MY  VERY  DEAR  FRIEND. — I  cannot  express 
to  you  the  great  delight  I  experienced,  and  those  also  to  whom  I  read  it 
aloud  from  the  review  of  my  work  in  the  North  British.  You  have  grasped 
and  epitomised  all  that  was  worth  knowing  on  the  subject  in  so  masterly 
and  delightful  a  manner  that  I  have  got  a  far  clearer  view  from  it  of  the 
Baron's  real  merit  and  the  happy  selection  I  had  made  of  my  preliminary 
volume  than  I  could  ever  have  hoped  for  elsewhere.  It  has  given  courage 
to  a  sinking  spirit,  and  will  do  more  for  the  recommendation  and  sale 
of  the  work  than  all  the  advertisements  or  exertions  I  could  make. 

"  I  sent  you  the  testimonial  (a  copy)  of  your  election  as  Fellow  of 
the  Eoyal  Society — and  a  noble  testimonial,  and  well  supported  it  was, 
by  Dr.  Buckland,  and  Murchison  President  of  the  Geographical  Society, 
and  Greenough  President  of  the  Geological  Society.  I  am  sorry  to  say 
our  kind  friend  Mr.  Greenongh  is  laid  up  with  influenza,  very  severe. 
On  Thursday  the  Koyal  Society  meeting  was  put  off  for  the  death  of 
the  Princess  Sophia.  Another  meeting  I  went  down,  and  the  old 
dame,  the  porteress  at  the  door,  said,  '  Oh  dear,  Major  Jervis,  his  good 
majesty  Charles  the  First  was  martyrised  to-day,  and  you  are  not  the  only 
gentleman  who  has  been  disappointed  and  had  a  long  walk  for  nothing 
to  Somerset  House.'  The  set  day  came  at  length,  and  I  was  at  my 
post,  Sir  John  Lubbock  in  the  chair,  and  rejoiced  to  communicate  to 
you  the  tidings  of  your  admission  into  the  long  list  of  750  Fellows, 
some  eminent  for  taste  and  talent,  and  on  the  whole  the  most  remark- 
able men  in  Europe  of  the  present  generation,  or  perhaps,  any  in 
modern  times.  The  honour  of  your  election  is  mutually  yours  and 
that  of  the  great  public  body,  and  I  always  think  that  a  grain  of  good 
salt  thrown  into  the  leaven  will  correct  many  acidities,  and  tend  to  give 
a  wholesome  zest  to  the  discoveries  of  intellectual  knowledge. 

"  I  have  thought  to  call  my  little  lithographic  establishment  the 
International  Press  ;  I  tried  first  how  Polygraphic  Press  would  sound, 
because  I  can  command  every  kind  of  work,  woodcutting,  lithography, 
copper-plate  of  every  kind,  and  in  fact  all  the  known  processes  of 
illustration  for  maps,  drawings,  designs,  or  works  of  any  sort,  among 
the  little  establishment  which  I  have  got  together,  in  the  first  style  of 
art.  Baron  Hugel's  portrait  is  a  specimen  of  the  portrait  work  on  steel ; 
the  yellow  title-page,  of  lithographic  writing  ;  the  vignettes  and  two 
of  the  illustrations,  of  my  wood-cutting  ;  and  the  other  two,  of  Palmer's 
glyphography,  poor,  bad,  but  infant  attempts  of  this  art.  This,  my 
friend  of  the  Royal  Institution  said,  smacked  of  commercial  business, 


1845.]  LITHOGRAPHY  INTRODUCED  INTO  INDIA.  415 

I  therefore  bethought  myself  of  the  Asiatic  Engineer  Institute,  because 
I  first  gave  my  attention  to  lithography  for  the  cause  of  education  with 
my  brother  in  1826,1  when  he  founded  and  organised  the  Engineer 
Institution  in  Bombay. 

"  I  have  got  the  view  of  Bombay,  between  the  hills  of  Caranja,  as 
seen  from  the  top  of  Malabar  Hill,  close  to  the  Eev.  Dr.  Wilson's 
bungalow,  sketched  from  nature  and  painted  in  oils  by  Mrs.  Jervis. 
It  is  a  glorious,  magnificent  scene. 

"  I  have  sent  out  a  lithographed  Post-office  money  order,  of  which  I 
bethought  myself  as  an  admirable  advertisement  and  recommendation 
to  H.M.  Indian  Commissioners,  to  the  Court  of  Directors,  and  to  the 
Government  of  India.  I  propose  to  send  it  to  Sir  Henry  Hardinge 
and  all  the  Governments  of  India.  It  is  of  course  merely  a  sketch 
in  petto.  You  know  better  than  I  can  tell  you,  if  a  poor  servant  or 
sepoy  wishes  to  send  a  small  sum  from  Kashmir  or  Delhi  to  Cape 
Comorin  or  Malabar,  he  can  do  so  by  hoondee  (bill),  but  they  lose  by  the 
exchange,  and  my  device  is  to  cut  off  this  loss  in  the  first  instance. 
Next,  the  greater  part  of  such  little  remittances  are  made  through 
private  channels.  How  much  fraud,  dishonesty,  untruth,  murder, 
thuggee,  etc.,  is  occasioned  by  the  remittances  so  made.  Our  dear 
friend  Nelson,  an  experienced  judge,  of  Malabar,  when  he  first  cast  his 
eyes  upon  it,  said  :  '  How  many  a  murder  will  this  save ! ' "  2 
Dr.  WILSON  to  Eev.  EGBERT  NESBIT. 

"EDINBURGH,  1st  February  1845. — MY  DEAR  EGBERT. — As  I  am 
sitting  up  again  a  whole  night  writing  letters,  you  will  not  expect  me 
to  enlarge.  The  North  British  Review,  No.  IV.,  is  sent  to  you  by  this 
mail.  The  writers  of  the  articles  whom  I  am  at  liberty  to  mention  to 
you,  are  : — 1.  Dana — Dr.  Fleming  (Aberdeen).  2.  Thornton — Eobert- 
son  (B.C.S.)  4.  Fitchett — J.  M.  Bell.  5.  Arnold— Maitlandj (Edward). 
6.  Hugel — John  Wilson.  7.  Poor  Laws — Chalmers.  S.Palestine — Isaac 
Taylor.  9.  Christian  Union — Professor  Eddye.  10.  Jesuits — an  Italian. 

"  Dr.  Welsh,  our  great  leader,  I  grieve  to  tell  you,  is  threatened 
with  a  fatal  disease  of  the  liver.  Save,  0  Lord  ! 

"  The  Eeview  is  now  established  as  first-rate.  Our  Scotch  circula- 
tion is  ahead  of  the  Edinburgh's  ;  and  we  are  making  way  in  England 

1  Colonel  George  Jervis,  Bombay  Engineer  Corps.     It  is  believed  that  the 
two  officers  were  the  first  to  introduce  lithography  into  India. 

2  The  Post-office  orders,  proposed  to  the  Indian  Government,  were  not 
taken  further  notice  of.     Since  then,  as  is  well  known,  they  have  extended 
not  only  to  India  but  to  every  civilised  country,  and  are  the  greatest  boon  to 
all  classes. 


416  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1845. 

and  on  the  continent.  Westergaard  is  delighted  with  it.  The  Edin- 
burgh prints  5000  copies,  and  we  3000  for  the  present. 

"  I  have  been  strongly  urged  by  friends  here  to  write  an  essay  on  the 
Millennium ;  but  I  can't  find  time.  I  grudge  every  day  I  am  away  from 
my  books.  I  hope  that  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  sent  by  the  Brahman, 
will  reach  you  safely.  Two  gigantic  globes,  with  a  few  volumes,  I  send 
off  next  week.  Put  one  of  the  globes  in  the  Institution,  and  keep 
the  other  at  Ambrolie  for  native  visitors  and  the  female  schools." 

"6th  March  1845. — I  came  up  to  London  last  week  to  sign  the 
statutes  of  the  Koyal  Society,  of  which,  a  short  time  ago,  I  was  elected 
a  member  on  the  recommendation  of  nine  of  the  great  masters  of 
science  and  literature,  of  whose  unsought  patronage  I  am  very 
unworthy.  At  the  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society  on  Saturday,  I  reported 
progress  in  the  decipherment  of  the  Hiinyaritic  inscriptions  of  the  south 
of  Arabia,  some  of  which,  the  most  eminent  orientalists  here  and  else- 
where being  witnesses,  I  have  now  clearly  made  out.  Mr.  Foster  and 
Dr.  Bird  are  both  wrong.  Gesenius  was  partly  right  and  partly  wrong. 
Rodiger  is  nearly  right.  I  have  not  time  to  tell  you  how  I  forged  the  key. 

"  I  am  with  Jervis,  who  is  doing  great  and  good  things  for  the  East. 
Yesterday  morning  he  forwarded  to  Prince  Albert,  without  my  know- 
ledge, my  proof  of  the  raised  map  of  Palestine.  The  Prince  himself 
laid  it  before  the  Queen,  who  was  much  pleased  with  it,  and  ordered 
her  private  secretary  to  inform  us  that  Her  Majesty  will  graciously 
accept  the  dedication  of  the  map  from  him  and  Dr.  Wilson." 

"  5th  June  1845. — Our  Assembly  has  passed  off  well  ;  but  we  missed 
the  hallowed  form  of  Welsh.  The  loss  which  we  have  sustained  by  his 
death  is  unspeakably  great.  Mr.  Edward  Maitland,  advocate,  receives 
charge  of  the  North  British  Review  in  the  meantime." 

Dr.  WILSON  to  Professor  WESTERGAARD. 

"  MY  DEAR  FRIEND. — I  was  delighted  to  hear  that  you  had  got  on  so 
well  on  your  arrival  in  the  capital  of  Denmark.  It  is  not  every 
orientalist  who,  like  yourself,  is  permitted  to  bask  in  royal  favour, 
and  it  speaks  -much  for  his  Danish  Majesty  that  he  has  done  some 
justice  to  your  claims  on  his  regard.  I  feel  a  great  interest  in  your 
present  studies.  You  will  not  doubt  this  as  far  as  the  Zand-Avasta  is 
concerned.  I  hope  to  profit  from  them  much  in  my  future  dealings 
with  Zoroastrianism.  I  have  all  along  been  much  inclined  to  take  the 
view  you  mention  of  the  seven  Amshas'  frauds.  The  Parsees  them- 
selves, in  fact,  in  modern  times  even,  seem  to  have  had  some  idea  of 
the  impersonation  to  which  you  refer.  See  the  Sifat-i-Sirozah,  in  the 


1  "-•  •'•!  COBBESPQ9DKEICE  WITH  WEOTZBGAABD,  417 


Appendix  to  117  work,  7%*  P*rrf  Jfc%i*n,     I  am  of  opinion  that 

tl.O    n,,:    ,1       .,:,,     ,,f     |.|,,:     ,-l-    !  ;,  1       ,,<      ::.:-.:.:!      !,,;.    •         -    ,:     .;.    :  P  ,  ,  |     ,,M 

that  of  the  8a«tnides, 

I   -..si.:!,,    Xrnophor,,    I  'I  I  J  UP  :h  ,    QfogHMI    UotfOPj    '^r.,    WT':    ...  V..P-.    ,=.1.    1  ,  -,  ,.,.!. 

of  the  antagonism  of  the  tiro  principle*  of  the  Pa  wee*.  It  i*  probable, 
however,  that  Judaism  and  Christianity  may  about  the  time  of  the 

MaAjM  havo  holpod  thorn  fegfol  form  to  th.-.ir  thoorio-.,  ;u,.l  to  multiply 

their  legends  You  would  observe  perhaps  that  in  the  second  number 
of  the  Nvrth  MM,  Bwiew,  tmder  the  head  of  Howee  Wflforft  trans- 
lation of  the  Vishnu  Parana,  I  allnded  to  the  great  iimilarity  between 
theVedaiandtheLitiirgicalwoiiwofthePaweetJ.  This,  a»  weU  as  the 
affinity  of  the  Samerit  and  Zand,  marks  the  early  connection  of  the 
two  «yrtero«.  Tour  discovery  about  the  nmflarity  of  the  Rturian  and 
Zand  will  throw  farther  light  on  the  matter,  I  long  to  see  the  result 
of  your  investigations.  It  may  be  interesting  to  yon  to  be  informed 
that  Mr,  Norris,  of  the  Boyal  Asiatic  Society,  has  deciphered  the  fee- 
simile  of  the  large  Pahlavi  inscription  brought  by  Hanson  from 
Afghanistan,  It  is  a  counterpart  of  one  of  the  Edicts  on  the  rock  of 
Girnar  in  the  Pali  language,  the  letters  reading  from  right  to  left  ! 
I  happened  to  be  in  London  ten  days  ago  when  Norris  read  his  paper, 
H,  H,  Wilson  evidently  did  not  like  this  ubiquity  and  antiquity  of 
Jiii'I'lhi.-.iM,  Uiouxli  of  coiiBM  h»:  OCpBMMd  l.li-:  |PBatr:Mt  in  tonal  in  j.oor 

Norris*s  discovery.  He  «aid,  for  anything  he  had  yet  observed,  t.h<; 
inscriptions  at  Girnar  might  be  Brahmanical,  as  tenderness  to  life  is 
common  both  to  Buddhism  and  Brahmanism,  I  directed  his  attention 
to  the  form  of  the  ancient  temples  on  the  Girnar  mountain  and  to 

I.Ii«:    liii'l'llii.-.t.    foniii.hi.    on    tJi--   .-ni,,.!!    (tone,    M   dedltfl    agrfflfl    him. 

Animal  tacrinces,  as  he  well  knows,  I  might  have  added,  were  a  part 

of  the  ancient  Brahmanism.    I  should  not  be  surprised  to  hear  thut 

,  ,  •::    ,  •'.    ',mt:  analogiei  h«-.t.w«:.rn  J:u'Mlii..ni  ;i.n.i  ZOPM,,  !.!•;.  ,.!,;..  ni. 

Buddhism  in  its  day  would  at  least  modify  the  ancient  fire-worship 

vJicn  it.  ouiir:  in  r:ont.;i/:t.  with  it.  in  t.hf.  nor1.li  of  fn«li;i.  I  hoj..:  rli.it. 
yd  will  n,;,.k«:  much  both  of  your  Z.unl  ;,.n.|  l';..hl;ui  MSS.  My  X-Mi-l 
MSS,  I  intend  to  take  back  with  me  to  India  ;  but  if  you  intend  to 
publish  a  text  of  any  of  th<-  Z;m<]  writings  I  shall  with  much  pleasure 
let  you  have  tint  loan  of  thorn  when  you  <:<>in>-.  ovet  to  gee  me. 

1845.  —  I  have  read  with  \i\\\<-\\  intoron.t  your  paj)eT«  in  tin: 
il.'ir.  Kii.n.il'-.  <l>.:  M<,r>/'  /////  //.///•,  •,  which  I  regularly  receive 
Yon  speak  of  making  a  resume*  for  tin:  /;o///.A<///  ./>///,/•//./>./.     Thin  may  bo 

Ufll,  but.  I.  -I.  Ill'-  III,'''  V«ill  to  |,|.-|,;i.|.-  illl  Ullir.li;  nil  tint  f'||  liri  |i  ,|  m 
hi  .  ll|ili'>li.  l«l  III.:  .\,jlt.h.  A'/'  .  It  VVOIlM  b«:  V.-jy  .i."-,-p|..,.b|,: 

•J  r: 


418  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1845. 

to  the  editor  ;  and  you  would  receive  at  the  rate  of  £14  for  the  printed 
sheet  as  an  acknowledgment,  which,  considering  the  bad  requital  of 
oriental  study,  is  worthy  of  acceptance.  Come  prepared  to  write  such 
an  article  when  here  ;  I  shall  be  happy  to  keep  you  right  in  the  matter 
of  English  idiom,  but  you  are  in  no  danger  of  going  wrong  even  in 
this  respect.  I  am  constantly  hearing  from  Bombay,  and  shall  have 
a  whole  budget  of  news  to  give  you  respecting  it  when  you  get 
over.  Dr.  Bird  has  contrived  to  read  the  inscriptions  backwards  like 
a  witch's  prayer.  I  can  now  prove  that  Rodiger  is  substantially  correct ; 
and  I  have  made  out  some  of  the  inscriptions  in  a  satisfactory  manner. 
Henderson  wishes  to  leave  the  Elphinstone  College,  and  to  join  our 
Institution.  He  says  that  great  evil  is  arising  from  the  exclusion  of 
religion  from  the  Government  school.  Dr.  Stevenson  has  returned  to 
Bombay  ;  but  he  finds  most  of  his  congregation  left  and  joined  to  the 
Free  Church,  which  in  India,  as  here,  is  destined  to  be  predominant. 
Our  missionary  friends  on  the  whole  are  tolerably  well.  I  do  hope 
that  you  will  again  visit  us  in  the  far  East.  A  journey  with  you  would 
be  a  great  luxury  to  me  ;  and  such  a  journey  I  do  hope  to  make. 
There  are  many  un visited  temples  in  the  Western  Ghats.  The  King  of 
Denmark,  as  in  the  case  of  Mebuhr,  ought  to  give  you  a  couple  of 
artists  when  you  go  abroad  next.  You  could  do  a  great  deal  of  good 
in  India  by  a  little  systematic  arrangement." 

"  COPENHAGEN,  1*7 th  October  1845. — MY  DEAR  DR.  WILSON. — I 
am  taken  up  by  the  writing  and  publishing  for  the  use  of  our  Danish 
students  a  Sanscrit  anthology  and  grammar  that  I  wish  to  get  through 
the  press  before  the  beginning  of  next  term,  i.  e.  before  the  middle  of  next 
month,  of  which  I  shall  of  course  have  the  pleasure  to  present  you  with 
a  copy  as  soon  as  the  book  is  published,  as  I  have  already  done  with  a 
little  English  treatise  on  the  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  of  Persia,  which  I 
this  summer  have  written  in  the  journal  of  our  Society  of  Northern 
Antiquarians,  and  which  I  earnestly  recommend  to  your  critical  ex- 
amination and  kind  forbearance.  The  Zand  and  Pahlavi  types  are  not 
yet  cut  and  founded  ;  here  is  only  one  man  able  to  do  it,  and  he  has  un- 
fortunately plenty  of  work  on  hand.  Still  I  hope  to  carry  my  project 
this  winter,  and  to  begin  the  printing  of  the  Zand  and  Pahlavi  book 
next  autumn  or  winter.  I  have  divided  the  task  with  a  learned  German, 
Dr.  Spiegel,  and  I  hope  that  by  this  division  the  whole  will  be  better 
and  quicker  executed.  It  is  our  intention  to  give,  besides  the  original 
texts,  a  Zand  and  Pahlavi  grammar  and  dictionaries,  and  farther  is  he 
to  undertake  a  German  translation  of  the  whole,  and  I  an  English  ; 
and  though  I  shall  endeavour  to  translate  as  faithfully  as  if  I  were  my- 


1845.]  LETTER  TO  HUGH    MILLER.  419 

self  a  true  fire- worshipper,  still  I  fear  that  my  translation  in  many 
points  will  not  agree  with  the  received  or  the  fancied  opinions  of  the 
Parsees.  I  shall  by  and  by  write  to  you  about  such  points,  to  receive 
also  your  opinion  about  these  things.  We  have  at  Copenhagen  many 
and  beautiful  copies  of  Vandidad,  Yagna  and  Vispard,  but  only  a  few 
copies  of  the  Yask  Nyaish,  etc.,  though  I  think  we'll  have  them  all  ; 
if,  therefore,  among  your  manuscripts  you  should  be  able  to  do  without 
the  use  of  all  these  minor  parts  of  the  Zand-Avasta,  and  would  lend  me 
these  at  Copenhagen  for  about  a  year,  you  would  do  me  one  favour 
more,  and  I  hope  likewise  a  great  service  both  to  science  and  to 
that  cause  of  which  you  are  one  of  the  most  eminent  defenders.  I 
shall  return  the  manuscripts  to  any  place  you  may  direct  as  soon  as 
you  may  wish  to  get  them,  or  as  soon  as  the  text  is  published.  A 
smaller  work  I  have  in  hand  at  the  present  is  the  publication  of 
MaMivanso,  of  which  you  know  Tumour  has  published  the  first  part ; 
but  I  feel  a  great  want  for  one  or  two  copies,  as  the  one  we  have  is  in 
some  places  a  little  indistinct  and  incorrect.  As  I  know  your  readiness 
to  assist  and  help  any  one,  I  request  you  to  look  for  one  copy  at  least 
of  Makdwanso. 

"  In  my  private  life  I  have  made  a  great  change.  I  have  married  in 
the  end  of  May  a  young  and  amiable  Danish  girl,  who  loves  me.  And 
now  I  think  I  am  happier  than  I  would  have  been  if  it  had  happened 
otherwise.  Pray  tell  me  how  our  Indian  friends  do  live.  I  seldom  hear 
from  that  part  of  the  world  that  occupies  a  bright  place  in  my  remem- 
brance. Before  all,  tell  me  how  you  yourself  are  doing.  I  am  now 
determined  to  do  as  if  I  were  in  India,  to  write  to  you  once  every 
month."  x 

Dr.  WILSON  to  HUGH  MILLER,  Esq. 

"  24th  July  1845. — MY  DEAR  SIR. — I  have  the  pleasure  of  sending 
for  your  examination  most  of  the  fossils  which  I  brought  from  Lebanon. 
The  ichthyolites  are  certainly  neither  placoids  nor  ganoids.  I  have  so 
little  practical  acquaintance  with  such  remains  that  I  cannot  positively 
say  whether  they  are  ctenoids  or  cycloids,  though  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  they  are  the  latter.  One  of  the  species  seems  to  belong  to  the 

1  As  this  sheet  passes  through  the  press  we  learn  the  death  of  this  amiable 
and  erudite  scholar  at^Copenhagen,  on  the  9th  September  1878.  Son  of  a 
joiner  and  builder,  Westergaard  took  his  M.A.  degree  at  nineteen,  and  gave 
up  the  rest  of  his  life  to  the  study  of  Zand,  in  which  his  death  now  leaves  the 
Bavarian  Spiegel  facile  princeps.  He  entered  political  life  in  the  first  Danish 
Rigsdag,  only  to  help  in  passing  the  Liberal  Charter.  Born  in  1815,  he  was 
eleven  years  junior  to  Dr.  Wilson. 


420  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1846. 

salmonidse.  Most  of  the  shells  and  impressions  of  shells  I  picked  up  in 
the  Jurassic  Hills  between  Jazln  and  Deir-el-Kamr,  south-east  of  Beyrut. 
One  or  two  of  them  are  from  the  under  indurated  chalk  between  Deir- 
el-Kamr  and  Beyrut.  The  small  packet  in  white  paper  is  from  Ehdur, 
near  the  cedars.  The  recent  species  of  buccinum  is  for  comparison 
with  the  largest  impression.  I  send  also  the  specimens  of  fossil  wood 
which  I  brought  from  the  Egyptian  desert,  south-east  of  Basdtin,  and 
from  Jebel-el-Tih,  in  the  Mount  Sinai  peninsula,  north  of  the  granitic 
range.  You  will  oblige  me  by  asking  Mr.  Sanderson  when  he  may 
call  upon  you,  to  cut  them  so  as  to  exhibit  a  section  of  them,  and  to 
prepare  a  slip  of  each  for  the  miscroscope,  like  those  which  you  yester- 
day showed  to  me.  You  are  most  welcome  to  take  pieces  of  them  as 
hand  specimens,  etc.,  for  yourself.  I  have  a  good  many  other  articles 
here  on  which  I  must  ask  Mr.  Sanderson  to  operate  at  a  future  time." 

Dr.  FALCONER  to  Dr.  WILSON. 

"BRITISH  MUSEUM,  1st  May  1846. — MY  DEAR  SIR. — I  com- 
missioned a  friend  who  went  out  lately  to  Bombay  to  send  all  the 
information  he  could  gather  for  me  about  the  Perini  island  fossils, 
more  especially  the  Dinotherium  and  Mastodons.  I  have  received  a 
number  of  sketches  of  the  specimens  in  the  Bombay  Society's  Museum, 
but  none  of  the  Dinotherium,  and  my  friend  Mr.  Winterbottom 
was  informed  by  Professor  Orlebar  or  Dr.  Buist  that  you  had  got 
a  cranium  of  the  Dinotherium,  and  taken  it  with  you  to  this  country. 
Might  I  ask  the  favour  of  your  informing  me  if  such  is  the  case,  or  if 
•  you  have  any  good  specimens  of  Mastodons  or  Dinotherium  teeth  from 
Perim  island,  and  whether  I  could  get  access  to  them  for  illustra- 
tions and  description  in  our  '  Fauna  Antiqua  Sivalensis.'  My  dear  Sir, 
yours  very  faithfully,  H.  FALCONER." 

Dr.  "Wilson's  second  marriage  took  place  in  June  1846,  to 
Isabella,  fourth  daughter  of  James  Dennistoun  of  Dennis- 
toun,  and  of  Mary  Kamsay,  fifth  daughter  of  George  Oswald 
of  Auchencruive.  For  more  than  twenty  years  she  proved  to 
be  a  devoted  wife,  and  no  less  a  self-sacrificing  missionary 
than  her  husband  was.  Admirably  did  she  fill  the  place  left 
vacant  by  the  Bayne  sisters,  alike  at  the  head  of  the  female 
schools,  among  the  families  of  the  native  converts,  and  in 
general  society.  Sprung  of  a  house  which,  through  the  alliance 
of  one  of  its  members  with  Robert  the  Steward  of  Scotland, 


1846.]  MARRIED  TO  ISABELLA  DENNISTOUN.  421 

could  declare,  "kings  have  come  of  us, not  we  of  kings,"  Isabella 
Wilson  ever  showed  the  truest  marks  of  gentle  birth  and 
training  in  the  unobtrusive  piety  and  unselfish  simplicity 
of  her  character.  Dr.  Wilson  himself  thus  alludes  to  his  new- 
found happiness  and  strength : — 

Dr.  WILSON  to  Eev.  EGBERT  NESBIT. 

"  EDINBURGH,  5th  June  1846. 

"  MY  DEAR  ROBERT. — You  will  learn  the  Lord's  great  goodness  to 
me  in  giving  me  the  prospect  of  being  united  in  the  most  endeared 
relation  to  one  every  way  worthy  of  the  most  devoted  human  love  ; 
and  who  by  her  piety,  talents,  accomplishments,  and  personal  and 
family  influence,  would  reflect  credit  on  any  missionary  or  Christian 
establishment  in  the  world,  Miss  Isabella  Dennistoun  of  Greenlaw 
House,  near  Paisley.  I  am  happy  to  say  that  her  mother  and  sisters 
most  cordially  approve  of  our  intentions.  Her  eldest  brother,  who  is 
daily  expected  from  Rome,  has  not  yet  been  informed  respecting  them  ; 
and  it  is  feared  that  lie  may  be  able  to  judge  of  them  only  according 
to  the  principles  of  the  world.  He  is  a  Deputy-Lieutenant  of  Dum- 
bartonshire, and  is  married  to  the  daughter  of  Lord  Cringletie.  I  have 
mentioned  to  Christina  some  of  Miss  Dennistoun's  other  connections, 
merely  to  satisfy  her  curiosity.  I  am  happy  to  say  that  dearest 
Christina  has  been  able  to  send  me  her  warmest  congratulations.  '  I  may 
safely  say/  she  writes  to  me,  '  that  in  the  warmest  and  most  heartfelt 
manner  I  can  enter,  my  beloved  brother,  into  your  feelings,  and  join 
with  you  in  gratitude  and  praise  to  the  great  Giver  of  all  good  for 
having  thus  led  and  guided  you  to  one  so  estimable  in  every  respect, 
and  who  seems  so  much  calculated  to  promote  your  own  personal 
comfort  and  happiness,  and  one  who  in  that  great  work  to  which  you 
have  devoted  yourself  is  ready  in  heart  and  soul  to  co-operate  with 
you,  and  willing  to  bear  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day.  I  am  glad 
to  say  your  beloved  one  is  not  altogether  a  stranger  to  me.  I 
have  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  her  ;  and  I  assure  you  (though  not 
much  acquainted)  formed  at  the  same  time  a  very  high  opinion  of  her. 
Dear  Catherine  too,  will,  I  am  sure,  be  every  day  able  more  and  more 
to  enter  into  your  feelings.'  I  am  happy  to  say  that  during  the 
Assembly  I  had  an  opportunity  of  introducing  my  dear  friend  to 
Catherine,  and  that  they  got  on  remarkably  well  together." 

"  \1tli  October  1846. — I  am  gratified  with  the  good  wishes  which  you 
express  in  reference  to  my  dear  partner  and  myself.  You  will  find,  I 
doubt  not,  in  her  all  that  can  be  desired  in  a  friend  and  fellow-labourer 


422  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1846. 

Our  marriage  was  consummated  in  very  comfortable  circumstances,  and 
with  the  fullest  approbation  of  all  the  members  of  the  family.  We 
have  received  the  kindest  treatment  from  all  the  numerous  relatives, 
and  they  seem  all  highly  satisfied.  They  are  also  pleased  with  the 
other  marriage  which  was  celebrated  along  with  our  own.  Mr.  Mitchell 
is  a  very  opulent  merchant  and  landed- proprietor,  and  extremely 
amiable,  and  thoroughly  pious.  He  is  an  elder  in  the  United  Secession 
Church,  and  contributes  .£300  per  annum  to  the  Synodical  funds. 
His  father  was  Dr.  Mitchell,  Professor  of  Divinity.  He  is  a  nephew  of 
Mr.  Oswald,  M.P.  for  Glasgow,  and  through  his  aunt  he  got  acquainted 
with  the  Dennistouns. 

"  I  have  promised  to  assist  Mr.  Sachs  in  establishing  himself  at 
Aden.  He  has  got  seriously  unwell,  and  what  may  be  the  issue  I 
do  not  know.  Perhaps  it  may  be  best  to  take  him  on  to  Bombay  for 
a  season.  He  is  the  most  learned  Jewish  convert  whom  I  have  yet 
met ;  a  great  linguist  and  philologist ;  prone  to  kill  himself  by  study. 

"  I  have  many  calls  from  the  conductors  of  periodicals  here,  and 
high  offers  of  remuneration  ;  but  I  can  do  nothing  at  present.  I  have 
a  department  in  the  North  British,  but  except  in  the  way  of  conversa- 
tion and  recommendation  I  have  done  nothing  in  it  since  the  fourth 
number  appeared.  I  have  also  made  an  engagement  with  Lowe's 
Magazine  at  the  request  of  Dr.  Candlish,  and  the  new  Editor  under  him. 
I  hope  to  get  your  co-operation  when  I  get  out  and  open  my  budget. 
The  North  British  gives  £14  a  sheet,  and  Lowe  £10.  An  article 
enables  us  to  add  to  our  Library." 

From  Professor  WESTERGAARD. 

"COPENHAGEN,  I8t/i  March  1847. 

"MY  DEAR  DR.  WILSON. — In  my  Zand  studies  I  am  making 
good  progress,  and  I  spend  at  present  all  the  time  I  can  spare  in  tran- 
scribing and  comparing  our  MSS.,  and  in  collecting  the  materials  both 
for  a  critical  edition  of  all  the  Zand  texts  that  are  within  my  reach, 
and  to  a  grammar  and  dictionary  of  the  Zand  language.  If  God  spares 
me,  and  I  find  the  necessary  support,  I  hope  to  be  able  to  commence 
the  printing  of  the  text  in  the  end  of  next  year  or  the  beginning  of 
1849,  and  to  finish  both  volumes  about  the  middle  of  1850;  and 
before  that  time  I  shall  scarcely  get  leisure  to  any  Pahlavi  study.  The 
most  incorrect  of  all  copies  is  the  Bombay  lithographed  Vandiclad 
work,  and  the  less  incorrect  copies  that  exist  are  our  ancient  copies 
from  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century;  following  these,  I 
shall  try  to  restore  the  text ;  and  the  grammar  and  dictionary,  in  which 


1847.]  FORMATION  OF  TEXT  OF  PARSEE  SCRIPTURES.  423 

you  may  overlook  at  one  glance  all  the  forms  of  every  word  that  are 
found,  will  be  the  best  test  for  the  correctness  of  the  text  on  any 
particular  place.  I  shall  proceed  in  the  same  way  to  the  Pahlavi  and 
Pazand  (or  Persian)  remains,  and  conclude  with  a  translation  of  the 
whole,  which  I  hope  to  get  through  the  press  before  ten  years  have 
passed.  Now,  my  dear  Dr.  Wilson,  I  have  shortly  exposed  to  you  the 
plan  of  my  proceeding,  which,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  is  the  only  one  that 
can  lead  to  any  certain  results.  At  present  I  shall  only  ask  you  for 
the  loan  of  all  the  minor  Zand  texts, — the  Yask,  Nyaish,  Baj — which 
constitute  the  Khurda  Avasta,  of  which  we  have  only  modern  copies; 
and  besides,  the  Sanscrit  translation,  if  you  possess  one.  The  Pahlavi 
MSS.  I  shall  not  be  able  to  use  satisfactorily  at  present,  and  it  will  be 
much  better  that  you  keep  these  until  that  time,  which  cannot  arrive 
ere  1850  or  1851.  You  may  then  perhaps  be  once  more  in  your 
native  country,  or,  at  any  rate,  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  send  them  off 
from  Bombay  if  you  think  me  deserving  it. 

"  I  have  left  the  Asiatic  section  of  the  Eoyal  Society  of  Northern 
Antiquaries.  In  my  attempts  to  reform  it  I  was  beaten,  but  did  not  at 
all  lose  the  courage,  and  I  am  now  standing  at  the  head  of  a  new 
Society  (the  Northern  Literature  Society)  which  I  have  founded  in 
connection  with  those  men  that  stand  at  the  head  of  our  literature. 
The  Society,  although  but  two  months'  old,  numbers  already  330  mem- 
bers, and  similar  Societies  will,  I  hope,  ere  long  be  founded  in  Norway 
and  Sweden  in  connection  with  that  of  mine.  The  first  number  of  our 
publication  is  already  out.  Though  absent  from  me  you  are  constantly 
present  in  my  thoughts,  near  and  dear  to  my  heart  ;  and  I  shall 
never  forget  those  happy  days  I  spent  in  your  society  in  the  far  East. 
When  in  Bombay  I  expect  letters  from  you  twice  a  year ;  I  shall  be 
sure  to  write  as  often.  Give  my  best  regards  to  Mrs.  Wilson.  May 
the  God  of  blessings  bless  your  efforts  to  advance  His  reign. — Believe 
me,  my  dear  Dr.  Wilson,  ever  to  be  yours  most  affectionately 

"  N.  WESTERGAARD." 

Dr.  WILSON  to  Professor  WESTERGAARD. 

"LONDON,  3d  July  1847. 

"My  DEAR  FRIEND. — In  a  box  which  I  forwarded  to  you  to-day, 
I  enclose  a  copy  of  my  work  on  The  Lands  of  the  Bible  for  the  Eoyal 
Society  of  Northern  Antiquaries  at  Copenhagen,  to  the  Secretary  of 
whom  I  have  addressed  this  note  : — '  London,  3d  July  1847. — My  dear 
Sir. — It  is  only  a  few  weeks  since  I  received  at  Edinburgh  your  letter 
acquainting  me  with  my  election  as  a  founder  and  member  of  the 
Eoyal  Society  of  Northern  Antiquaries  at  Copenhagen,  even  though 


424  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1847. 

that  letter,  and  the  accompanying  diploma,  are  dated  in  the  early 
part  of  1843.  Your  parcel  must  have  lain  at  some  of  our  public 
Institutions  without  being  forwarded  to  me.  Allow  me,  however  late, 
to  thank  your  Society  for  the  honour  it  has  done  me  in  electing  me 
a  founder,  and  also  for  adding  my  name  to  the  list  of  the  Collabo- 
rateurs  des  Memoires  in  the  Asiatic  Section.  With  this  editorial 
committee  I  shall  have  pleasure  in  co-operating  on  my  return  to  India, 
for  which  I  am  about  to  set  out.' 

"  And  now,  my  dear  friend  Westergaard,  I  send  you  all  my  Zand 
and  Pahlavi  MSS.  for  collation,  except  a  few  Zasts  which  one  of  my 
boys  has  by  mistake  put  into  one  of  my  Indian  boxes.  They  are  in 
eight  volumes,  viz. : — 1.  Par  si  Rawayats,  Zand,  Pahlavi  MSS.,  etc. 
2.  Collection  of  Zasts,  Zand  MSS.  3.  Great  Sirozah  and  Bazes,  Zand 
MS.  4.  Sirozahs,  Zand  MSS.  5.  Khurda  Avasta,  MS.  6.  Zand  and 
Pahlavi  Minor  MSS.  7.  Nyaislies,  Zand  MSS.  8.  Star-Stir,  Zand  and 
Pahlavi  MS.  You  will  find  my  name  on  them  all.  When  you  have 
collated  them  I  will  thank  you  to  return  them  to  me  at  Bombay, 
where  the  Parsee  may  perhaps  again  fight  with  me  as  the  wild  beasts 
with  St.  Paul  at  Ephesus." 

Tims,  by  his  MSS..  in  Scotland  as  by  his  personal  inter- 
course and  influence  in  Bombay,  he  co-operated  with  the 
learned  Westergaard  in  producing  what  is  still,  and  must 
long  be,  the  only  complete  text  of  the  extant  Parsee  scrip- 
tures. At  the  same  time  we  find  the  then  venerable  Colonel 
Briggs  invoking  his  aid  in  researches  into  the  development  of 
the  great  vernacular  languages  of  Northern  and  Central  India 
from  the  Sanscrit,  and  their  relation  to  the  Dravidian  and 
aboriginal  tongues  of  the  South.  About  this  time  Lassen" 
announced  to  him  his  election  as  a  Corresponding  Member  of 
the  German  Oriental  Society. 

The  month  of  September  1847  found  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson 
on  their  way  to  India.  Their  route  lay  through  the  north  of 
France,  Belgium,  and  the  Ehine  country,  Switzerland,  Italy, 
and  Malta,  that  he  might*  report  on  the  state  of  religion  on 
the  Continent,  and  the  duty  of  the  Free  Church,  which 
supports  many  preaching  stations  there,  and  aids  the  indi- 
genous Eeformed  Churches  of  France,  Italy,  and  Bohemia. 


1847.]  VISITS  LASSEN,  THE  ORIENTALIST.  425 

In  his  letter  to  the  Rev.  J.  G.  Lorimer,  Convener  of  the  com- 
mittee on  the  subject,  he  describes  his  meeting  with  Lassen : — 

"In  Rhenish  Prussia  my  intercourse  with  different  parties  was 
entirely  of  a  literary  character.  At  Bonn  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
Professor  Lassen,  one  of  the  greatest  Orientalists  of  the  Continent. 
At  present  he  is  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  a  truly  great  work  on 
the  History  of  India,  which,  I  trust,  will  ere  long  become  well  known 
in  our  native  country  as  well  as  in  the  distant  East.  It  is  entitled, 
Indisclie  AlterthumsJcunde,  von  CHR.  LASSEN.  I  was  favoured  with  the 
sheets  of  the  work,  so  far  as  it  has  been  printed.  After  a  topographical 
and  ethnographical  description  of  India,  the  author  proceeds  to  investi- 
gate its  ancient  history.  His  acquaintance  with  its  sacred  language 
and  antiquities  gives  him  advantages,  which  he  turns  to  a  wonderful 
account.  At  the  same  place  I  met  Mr.  Erskine,  the  son-in-law  of  Sir 
James  Mackintosh.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  our  Bombay  Asiatic 
Society,  to  which  he  contributed  several  most  able  papers  on  the 
Parsees  and  the  Cave-temples  of  India.  He  has  been  devoting  his 
attention  of  late  to  the  Muhammadan  History  of  India,  as  set  forth  in 
its  original  authorities.  He  introduced  me  to  Mr.  Konig,  who  has 
patronised  oriental  literature,  perhaps  more  than  any  other  individual 
of  our  day,  by  the  publication  of  many  works  in  the  Sanscrit  and 
other  languages." 

To  Dr.  J.  Buchanan  he  wrote : — 

"  At  Cairo  I  purchased  from  the  Karaim  Jews  a  complete 
copy  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  neatly  written  on  1386  leaves  of  parch- 
ment. Though  it  is  only  three  hundred  and  fifty-seven  years  old,  it  has 
peculiar  interest  as  belonging  to  a  recension  of  which  few  or  no  copies 
are  in  the  hands  of  Europeans,  and  as  having  the  text  in  many  places 
arranged  according  to  the  Hebrew  poetry.  By  the  help  of  Mr.  Lieder, 
the  esteemed  missionary,  we  were  able  speedily  to  equip  ourselves  for 
a  journey  through  the  land  of  Goshen,  which  we  were  able  to  accom- 
plish in  a  very  satisfactory  manner.  At  the  Tern  el-Yehud,  near 
Thibin,  we  found  undoubted  and  numerous  tokens  of  an  ancient  site, 
and,  if  we  mistake  not,  traces  of  the  Onion  built  by  Onias  in  imitation 
of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem.  We  successfully  explored  the  Tell  el- 
Yehud  near  Belbies,  probably  the  site  of  the  Vicus  Judseorum  of  the 
Antoninian  Itinerary.  At  the  Ten  el-Basta,  the  Bubastis  of  the 
Greeks,  and  the  Pi-Beseth  (the  first  of  these  syllables  being  the  Egypt- 
ian article),  as  well  as  other  places,  we  procured  some  valuable  antiques 


426  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1847. 

which  have  an  historical  import.  We  visited  a  site  corresponding 
with  the  Thon  of  the  Antoninian  Itinerary,  and  perhaps  the  Pi-Thorn 
of  the  Israelites.  We  examined  the  site  of  Heroopolis,  the  Barneses  of 
the  Septuagint ;  and  we  there  disinhumed  the  large  image  of  Rameses 
II.,  the  Sesostris  of  the  Egyptians.  We  found  what  is  now  generally 
admitted  to  be  the  land  of  Goshen  most  minutely  accord  with  the 
intimations  and  exigencies  of  Holy  Writ.  We  went  to  the  Red  Sea  by 
a  route  seldom  traversed;  and  on  its  interesting  shores  we  observed 
fresh  proofs  of  the  accuracy  of  the  views  which  I  have  ventured  to 
express  in  The  Lands  of  the  Bible,  on  the  great  question  of  the  passage 
of  the  Israelites.  We  felt  very  thankful  to  the  Father  of  mercies  when 
we  arrived  at  our  desired  haven. 

"  Our  friend  Dr.  Miller  took  us  on  shore  early  on  the  morning  after 
we  cast  anchor  in  the  harbour.  We  met  Mr.  Mitchell,  and  Mr.  Hender- 
son, and  Dhunjeebhoy  and  Hormasdjee,  and  then  the  Abyssinian  youth 
most  kindly  hastening  to  bid  us  welcome,  Mr  Nesbit,  who  has  since 
joined  us,  being  then  absent  from  Bombay.  Since  our  establishment 
in  the  mission-house  we  have  had  crowds  of  visitors,  particularly  of  all 
tribes  and  classes  of  natives,  by  many  of  whom,  former  acquaintances, 
we  have  been  received  in  the  most  affecting  manner.  Several  of  my 
controversial  opponents  have  proffered  their  renewed  friendship,  which 
is  very  acceptable,  alleging  that  they  never  could  take  offence  at  what 
I  have  written,  as  I  '  uniformly  avoided  disagreeable  personalities.' 
I  have  recommenced  my  usual  Sabbath  services,  both  predicatory  and 
catechetical ;  and  two  week-day  lectures  in  English  and  Marathee, 
which  have  hitherto  been  remarkably  well  attended.  I  am  inspecting 
the  educational  operations  of  the  mission  with  a  view  to  the  immediate 
resumption  of  my  duties  in  that  department.  You  will  ever  pray  that 
grace  may  be  given  to  us  all  to  make  full  proof  of  our  ministry,  incal- 
culably solemn  in  all  circumstances,  but  especially  so  in  this  great  land 
of  heathen  darkness  and  death. 

"  Dhunjeebhoy  has  set  out  on  an  important  tour  with  all  juvenile 
ardour  and  Christian  zeal  and  humility.  Gabru,  one  of  the  two 
devoted  Abyssinian  youths,  accompanied  him  as  an  attendant  and 
assistant.  Hormasdjee  is  preparing  discourses  with  a  view  to  his  ordina- 
tion, which  we  hope  will  soon  take  place  ;  particularly  as.  of  all  the 
converts  in  the  East,  he  has  endured  the  greatest  trials  and  suffered 
the  greatest  earthly  losses  in  consequence  of  his  embracement  of  the 
cause  of  Christ.  I  feel  it  an  unspeakable  privilege  to  be  restored  to 
the  fellowship  of  the  dear  converts." 


1847.]  WELCOMED  BACK  TO  BOMBAY.  427 

"  Welcome !  welcome  again  on  the  Indian  shores  ! "  wrote 
one  whom  we  may  take  as  representative  of  all — the  Eev.  B. 
Schmidt,  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  who  had  long 
evangelised  the  Tamul  country,  and  had  returned  to  India  to 
work  among  the  tribes  of  the  Neilgherry  hills.  "I  almost 
apprehended  that  you  would  find  so  much  to  do  at  home  for 
the  mission  cause  that  you  would  not  come  out  again  into  the 
encampment.  But  a  true  Crusader  cannot  stay  at  home  as 
long  as  one  Turk  is  in  the  field !  Although  born  in  different 
countries,  wearing  different  uniforms,  preaching  Christ  in 
different  languages,  in  different  provinces,  yet  we  reach  each 
other  the  right  hand  of  fellowship — we  are  one  in  Christ ! " 
And  as,  when  beginning  his  mission  in  Bombay,  Dr.  Wilson's 
first  privilege  was  to  announce,  in  the  Oriental  Christian 
Spectator  for  January  1830,  the  suppression  of  Suttee  in  what 
was  then  British  India,  so  now,  on  resuming  his  editorial 
labours  in  January  1848,  he  published  the  notification,  by 
the  Governor-General  and  Commander-in-Chief  Lord  Har- 
dinge,  that  proclamations  had  been  issued  by  the  Maharaja 
of  Kashmere,  the  notorious  Goolab  Singh,  and  a  majority  of 
the  principal  feudatories,  prohibiting  widow-burning,  infanti- 
cide, and  slavery  throughout  their  States.  "  The  Governor- 
General  abstains  on  this  occasion  from  prominently  notic- 
ing those  States  in  which  these  barbarous  usages  are  still 
observed,  as  he  confidently  expects  at  no  distant  day  to 
hear  of  the  complete  renunciation  of  them  in  every  State 
in  alliance  with,  or  under  the  protection  of,  the  Paramount 
Power  of  India."  That  good  work  was  completed  a  few 
years  afterwards  by  his  successor,  the  last  of  the  East  India 
Company's  Governor-Generals,  the  Marquis  of  Dalhousie. 

The  famous  "  Political,"  George  Clerk,  whose  very  name 
had  been  a  tower  of  strength  on  our  north-west  frontier  all 
through  the  Cabul  disasters  and  the  first  Sikh  War,  and  at 
whose  feet  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  had  sat,  was  now  at  the  close 


428  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1847. 

of  his  first  term  of  office  as  Governor  of  Bombay.  He  laid 
the  foundation-stone  of  the  Colaba  Church  at  its  extreme  south 
point,  to  commemorate  our  countrymen  who  had  fallen  victims 
to  a  policy  against  which  many  of  them  had  protested,  and, 
as  the  evangelical  bishop  of  those  days  expressed  it,  "  to 
acknowledge  the  hand  of  Almighty  God,  which  was  equally 
seen  and  felt  in  the  victories  bestowed.  This  monumental 
church  will  be  conspicuously  seen  by  every  vessel  entering 
our  beautiful  and  commodious  harbour,  and  our  countrymen 
newly  arrived,  whether  in  a  civil  or  a  military  capacity,  will 
be  reminded  that  although  far  removed  from  the  land  of  their 
fathers,  they  are  still  in  the  land  of  the  God  of  their  fathers." 
And  Dr.  "Wilson  found  his  old  colleague  and  some  new 
scholars  in  the  Asiatic  Society  eagerly  discussing  those  slabs 
sent  to  Bombay  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  which  had  been 
dug  up  from  the  ruins  of  Mneveh.  The  Governor  directed 
plaster  castings  to  be  made  from  them  for  his  own  collection ; 
and  the  work,  the  first  of  the  kind  in  Bombay,  was  executed 
by  Abyssinian  boys  rescued  by  the  Indian  Navy  from  the  Arab 
slavers. 

The  death,  at  forty-eight,  of  his  old  acquaintance, 
Syajee  Eao,  the  Gaikwar  of  Baroda,  on  the  28th  December, 
drew  from  Dr.  Wilson  this  public  notice  of  him : — "  Sagacity 
and  suspicion  were  prominent  traits  in  his  character ;  and  it 
was  in  consequence  of  the  latter  that  he  sometimes  became 
the  dupe  of  designing  men.  In  1835,  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity were  pretty  fully  unfolded  to  him  at  his  own  request. 
He  heard  the  communications  which  were  made  to  him  with 
respect,  and  stated  his  objections  to  some  of  the  arguments 
advanced  by  the  Brahmans  of  his  Durbar  against  the  Christian 
missionary." 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

1848-1856. 

A  NEW  PERIOD— TOUR  IN  SINDH— THE  BOMBAY  SCHOOL  OF 
THE  CATECHUMENS. 

Empire  of  British  India  territorially  completed — Lord  Falkland — Satara 
and  Nagpore  become  British  Districts — The  Conquest  of  Sindh — Stung  nearly 
to  death  by  Bees — The  Sorrows  of  Missionaries — A  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Rome  urged  on  Dr.  Candlish — Non-Christian  Teachers  in  Mission  Schools — 
Anglo-Indian  Society  about  1848 — Sore  sickness — Missionary  survey  of  Sindh 
— The  Pool  of  the  Crocodiles — Through  the  hills  to  Sehwan — Drugs  versus 
Wine — A  Penitent  Apostate— Meeting  with  Dr.  Duff— Through  Kutch  and 
Kathiawar  to  Surat — Bombay  Presbytery  to  General  Assembly  on  extending 
Foreign  Missions — To  Captain  Eastwick  on  Political  and  Educational  Reform 
— Almost  a  Christian — A  Gift  of  Lionesses — On  the  Relation  of  the  different 
Races  of  India  to  Christianity — Bishop  Dealtry — Another  learned  Parsee 
Inquirer — The  Samaritans  at  Nablus — Another  Habeas  Corpus  Case — First 
Fruits  from  Sindh — Parsee  and  Muhammadan  Converts  from  the  Government 
College — Renewed  Excitement  and  Government  Inquiry — Lord  Elphinstone 
— Government  learning  the  Principles  of  Toleration — The  Goojaratee  New 
Testament  and  Native  Scholarship — Dr.  Wilson  on  Judson  and  the  Karen 
Christians. 


"  To  Simplicianus  then  I  went,  the  father  of  Ambrose  (a  Bishop  now)  in 
receiving  Thy  grace,  and  whom  Ambrose  truly  loved  as  a  father.     To  him  I 
related  the  mazes  of  my  wanderings.     But  when  I  mentioned  that  I  had  read 
certain  books  of  the  Platonists,  which  Victorinus,  sometime  Rhetoric  Profes- 
sor of  Rome  (who  had  died  a  Christian  as  I  had  heard),  had  translated  into 
Latin,  he  testified  his  joy  that  I  had  not  fallen  upon  the  writings  of  other 
philosophers,  full  of  fallacies  and  deceits,  after  the  rudiments  of  this  world, 
whereas  the  Platonists'  many  ways  led  to  the  belief  in  God  and  His  Word. 
Then  to  exhort  me  to  the  humility  of  Christ,  hidden  from  the  wise  and 
revealed  to  little  ones,  he  spoke  of  Victorinus  himself,  whom  while  at  Rome 
he  had  most  intimately  known  :  and  of  him  he  related  what  I  will  not  con- 
ceal.    For  it  contains  great  praise  of  Thy  grace,  to  be  confessed  unto  Thee, 
how  that  aged  man,  most  learned  and  skilled  in  the  liberal  sciences,  and  who 
had  read  and  weighed  so  many  works  of  the  philosophers ;  the  instructor  of 
so  many  noble  Senators,  who  also,  as  a  monument  of  his  excellent  discharge 
of  his  office,  had  (which  men  of  this  world  esteem  a  high  honour)  both 
deserved  and  obtained  a  statue  in  the  Roman  Forum ;  he,  to  that  age  a  wor- 
shipper of  idols,  and  a  partaker  of  the  sacrilegious  rites,  to  which  almost  all 
the  nobility  of  Rome  were  given  up  ...  he  now  blushed  not  to  be  the  child 
of  Thy  Christ,  and  the  new-born  babe  of  Thy  fountain ;  submitting  his  neck  to 
the  yoke  of  humility,  and  subduing  his  forehead  to  the  reproach  of  the  Cross. 
0  Lord,  Lord,  which  hast  bowed  the  heavens  and  come  down,  touched  the 
mountains  and  they  did  smoke,  by  what  means  didst  Thou  convey  Thyself 
into  that  breast  ?    He  used  to  read  (as  Simplicianus  said)  the  holy  Scripture, 
most  studiously  sought  and  searched  into  all  the  Christian  writings,  and  said 
to  Simplicianus,  (not  openly  but  privately  and  as  a  friend),  '  Understand  that 
I  am  already  a  Christian. '     Whereto  he  answered,  '  I  will  not  believe  it,  nor 
will  I  rank  you  among  Christians,  unless  I  see  you  in  the  Church  of  Christ. ' 
The  other,  in  banter,  replied,  '  Do  walls  then  make  Christians  ? '    And  this 
he  often  said,  that  he  was  already  a  Christian ;   and  Simplicianus  as   often 
made  the  same  answer,  and  the  conceit  of  the  '  Avails '  was  by  the  other  as 
often  renewed.     For  he  feared  to  offend  his  friends,  proud  daemon-worshippers, 
from  the  height  of  whose  Babylonian  dignity,  as  from  cedars  of  Libanus, 
which  the  Lord  had  not  yet  broken  down,  he  supposed  the  weight  of  enmity 
would  fall  upon  him.     But  after  that  by  reading  and  earnest  thought  he  had 
gathered  firmness,  and  feared  to  be  denied  by  Christ  before  the  holy  angels, 
should  he  now  be  afraid  to  confess  him  before  men,  and  appeared  to  himself 
guilty  of  a  heavy  offence  in  being  ashamed  of  the  Sacraments  of  the  humility 
of  Thy  Word,  and  not  being  ashamed  of  the  sacrilegious  rites  of  these  proud 
dsemons,  whose  pride  he  had  imitated  and  their  rites  adopted,  he  became  bold- 
faced against  vanity,  and  shame-faced  towards  the  truth,  and  suddenly  and 
unexpectedly  said  to  Simplicianus  (as  himself  told  me),  'Go  we  to  the  Church; 
I  wish  to  be  made  a  Christian.'     But  he,  not  containing  himself  for  joy,  went 
with  him.     And  having  been  admitted  to  the  first  Sacrament,  and  become  a 
Catechumen,  not  long  after  he  further  gave  in  his  name,  that  he  might  be  re- 
generated by  baptism,  Rome  wondering,  the  Church  rejoicing." 

ST.  AUGUSTINE'S  Confessions,  in  Dr.  Pusey's  version. 


1848.]        OUR  INDIAN  EMPIRE  TERRITORIALLY  COMPLETED.        431 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 

THE  history  of  British  India  begins  with  the  Marquis  of 
Dalhousie.  Alike  in  conquest  and  in  administration,  the 
work  of  Olive,  Wellesley,  and  Bentinck,  was  a  foundation — 
was  a  prelude.  That  of  Dalhousie  was  consolidation — was 
completion.  The  second  Sikh  War  gave  the  north-west  its 
natural  frontier  for  ever;  the  most  foolishly  ambitious  can 
never  make  Cabul  and  Quetta,  Balkh  and  Herat,  Merv  and 
Meshed,  more  than  outposts  held  by  subsidised  allies.  The 
strategic  and  commercial  railways,  the  canals,  the  roads,  the 
cheap  postage,  the  telegraph,  the  schools  and  universities  of 
Dalhousie  gave  the  empire  a  more  secure  defence  than  all  the 
troops,  by  withdrawing  which  prematurely  against  his  pro- 
tests, the  governments  who  fought  the  Crimean  "War  occasioned 
the  Sepoy  mutiny.  The  lapse  from  failure  of  natural  heirs  of 
chaotic  States,  which  we  ourselves  had  created,  like  Satara 
and  Nagpore,  not  only  removed  centres  of  disaffection,  but 
proclaimed  the  good  of  the  people  to  be  the  reason  of  our 
existence  in  India.  It  also  left  Lord  Canning  and  Sir  Henry 
Durand  a  clear  space  on  which  to  write  the  new  body  of 
international  law  guaranteeing,  by  patent,  permanence  to 
every  feudatory  sovereign's  house,  on  the  sole  conditions 
of  loyalty  to  the  empire  and  fair  administration  of  their 
estates.  With  the  last  echo  of  the  artillery  cannonade  of 
Guzerat  on  the  22d  February  1849,  and  when  Sher  Singh 
and  Chutter  Singh  gave  up  their  swords  to  General  Gilbert 
on  the  spot  where  Alexander  the  Great  had  once  conquered, 
British  India  became  what  it  now  is,  save  only  Pegu  after- 
wards forced  upon  us. 


432  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1848. 

Wellesley  and  Bentinck  were  united  in  the  victories  of 
war  and  of  peace  which  Dalhousie  won  before  he  was  forty. 
Henceforth,  whether  we  look  at  the  events  of  history  or  the 
lives  of  individuals  who  worked  them  out  each  in  his  own 
way,  like  John  Wilson,  we  are  in  a  new  atmosphere.  Winter 
is  past ;  the  time  of  sowing,  too,  is  here  and  there  passing  into 
the  blossoming  that  betokens  harvest.  Let  but  the  great 
baptism  of  blood  in  1857  be  over,  and  we  shall  see  the  bad  as 
well  as  some  of  the  good  of  the  Company  destroyed — obstruc- 
tion giving  way  to  rashness  sometimes,  but  always  to  light ; 
tradition  yielding  to  fickleness  often,  so  that  continuity  is 
sacrificed,  but  never  again  choking  progress.  The  Mutiny 
secured  a  new  start  at  least,  and  that  in  the  direction  which  the 
missionary,  from  Carey  to  Duff  and  Wilson,  had  never  ceased 
to  demand.  In  Bombay  Sir  George  Clerk  was  too  soon 
succeeded  by  Viscount  Falkland,  of  whom  the  best  that  can 
be  said  is  that  he  had  a  clever  wife  who  made  society  bright, 
and  that  he  kept  the  place  warm  for  Lord  Elphinstone  in 
1853.  But  Lord  Falkland  had  as  his  principal  adviser  in 
council  Sir  J.  P.  Willoughby,  whose  minute  on  the  Satara 
case,  which  Lord  Dalhousie  pronounced  the  text-book  on  the 
law  of  adoption,  gives  a  mark  to  the  administration.  On  the 
defeat  of  the  last  of  the  oppressive  Peshwas  in  1817  we 
rescued  the  representative  of  their  master  Sivajee  from 
captivity,  and  created  the  principality  of  Satara  for  the  old 
man.  On  investing  him  Sir  James  Carnac  warned  him  of 
the  possibility  of  lapse.  When,  in  spite  of  his  treason,  we 
acknowledged  his  successor,  and  that  successor  died  childless, 
the  very  considerations  which  had  recommended  the  creation 
of  the  State  justified  its  extinction  as  a  failure.  Apart  from 
his  knowledge  of  the  two  Eajas  and  the  people,  Dr.  Wilson 
had  an  interest  in  Satara,  for  it  was  during  several  years  the 
seat  of  a  branch  mission  under  Mr.  Aitken.  Satara,  however 
had  less  interest  for  him  than  the  fate  uf  Nagpore.  About 


1848.]          TOLERATION  THREATENED  IN  NAGPORE  STATE.  433 

the  same  time  Lord  Hastings  had  restored  it,  and  with  the 
same  melancholy  results  in  the  misgovernment  of  the  people, 
in  spite  of  the  control  of  a  Political  Eesident  like  Sir  E. 
Jenkins.  Aided  by  Sir  W.  Hill's  endowment  Dr.  Wilson  had 
sent  out  Mr.  Hislop  to  the  military  station  of  Nagpore, 
Kamptee,  and  he  was  afterwards  joined  by  -Mr.  E.  Hunter.  But 
the  new  missionaries  soon  found  that  toleration  was  not 
recognised  in  the  native  State  of  Nagpore  outside  of  the 
British  cantonment.  Dr.  Wilson  had  successfully  established, 
or  helped  to  set  up,  missions  in  other  States,  such  as  those  of 
Goojarat,  Kathiawar,  and  Kutch,  and  was  soon  to  do  so  in 
Eajpootana.  But  the  imprisonment  of  a  Brahman  convert, 
afterwards  the  Eev.  Baba  Pandurang,  in  1848,  showed  that  in 
Nagpore  the  rights  of  conscience  and  civil  liberty  could  be 
disreg'arded,  till  the  very  existence  of  a  mission  became  as 
impossible  as  it  still  is  in  Eussia.  When  in  1853,  the  death 
of  the  Eaja  after  his  persistent  refusal  to  adopt  an  heir  left 
the  fate  of  Nagpore  to  the  decision  of  the  Government  of 
India,  the  substitution  of  British  for  native  rule,  and  ulti- 
mately of  a  vigorous  Chief  Commissioner  for  an  incompetent 
subordinate  officer,  gave  the  mission  the  same  fair  play  which 
the  rest  of  British  India  had  enjoyed  since  the  Charter  of 
1833. 

During  Dr.  Wilson's  absence  from  India  the  province  of 
Sindh  had  been  added  to  the  empire  as  a  result  of  the 
Afghan  campaigns.  As  if  the  policy  of  childish  interference, 
directed  by  military  incapacity,  had  not  at  Cabul  given  a 
sufficient  blow  to  the  moral  prestige  of  our  Government  and 
the  fidelity  of  its  sepoys,  Sir  Charles  Napier  was  allowed  by 
Lord  Ellenborough  to  repeat  the  criminal  blunder  in  the 
desert  and  the  delta  of  the  Indus.  Outram's  protests  were  as 
vain  as  the  indignation  of  all  whose  opinion  was  worth  con- 
sideration. Nor  was  the  conquest  all.  No  longer  a  foreign 
country,  Sindh  ceased  to  be  attractive  to  the  sepoys  who 

2F 


434  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1848. 

had  looked  there  for  the  batta  or  extra  allowances  allowed  on 
active  service  beyond  the  frontier.  First  some  Bengal  and 
then  some  Madras  sepoy  regiments  mutinied  because  the 
allowances  were  refused,  and  then  their  immediate  commander 
condoned  the  heinous  offence.  The  experience  of  1857  was 
anticipated  on  a  scale  sufficiently  large  to  warn  observers  like 
Sir  Henry  Lawrence,  and  to  lead  Lord  Dalhousie  afterwards  to 
suggest  reforms.  But  the  only  effect  at  the  time  was,  in  1844, 
to  hand  Sindh  over  to  Bombay  to  be  garrisoned  by  its  army. 
It  fell  to  Lord  Dalhousie  so  soon  as  he  had  personally 
received  the  submission  of  the  Punjab,  a  few  years  after,  to 
visit  Sindh  that  he  might  provide  for  those  administrative  and 
engineering  improvements  which  promise  to  make  young 
Egypt  one  day  more  than  rival  old,  although  the  Indus  can 
never  equal  the  Mle. 

It  was  natural  that  John  Wilson  should  not  have  been  long 
at  his  old  post  in  Bombay,  without  turning  his  eyes  north- 
wards to  the  new  province,  in  the  hope  of  taking  possession 
of  it  for  his  Master.  The  policies  of  rulers  might  be  evil  or 
good — and  on  that  question  too  no  man  could  express  a  more 
weighty  opinion,  or  one  that  these  rulers  themselves  more 
desired  to  avail  themselves  of  beforehand.  But  by  whatever 
means  a  door  was  opened,  he,  or  some  one  stirred  up  by  him, 
must  enter  in.  He  was  soon  to  be  the  first  missionary  who 
had  delivered  the  divine  message  in  Sindh.  His  companion 
was  Dr.  Duff,  who,  having  been  consulted  whether  he  would 
succeed  Dr.  Chalmers  in  the  New  College,  had  agreed 
merely  to  go  to  Scotland  in  1850  to  advise  regarding  the 
needs  of  the  India  mission.  The  two  apostolic  men  met  at 
Sehwan,  on  the  Indus.  Dr.  Tweedie  had  meanwhile  become 
convener  of  the  Foreign  Mission  committee  in  Edinburgh. 

STUNG  NEARLY  TO  DEATH  BY  BEES. 

"  BOMBAY,  1st  April  1848. 
"My  DEAR   MR.  TWEEDIE. — Mr.  Henderson  (he  had  resigned  a 


1848.]  STUNG  TERRIBLY  BY  BEES.  435 

Government  professorship  to  join  the  Mission)  and  I  have  experienced 
a  painful  affliction — associated,  however,  with  many  striking  mercies 
— which  unfits  us  for  the  use  of  the  pen.  When  we  were  engaged 
with  a  few  friends,  and  some  of  the  pupils,  in  making  researches  into 
the  natural  history  and  antiquities  of  the  adjoining  island  of  Salsette, 
we  were  attacked  by  an  immense  cloud  of  wild  bees,  which  had  received 
no  sensible  provocation  from  any  of  our  party,  and  nearly  stung  to 
death.  Mr.  Henderson  was  the  first  who  was  attacked.  He  soon  sank, 
on  one  of  the  jungle  roads,  in  the  hopeless  attempt  to  guard  himself 
from  injury  ;  and  he  had  lain  for  about  forty  minutes  in  a  state  of 
almost  total  insensibility  before  he  was  found  by  our  friends  and  any 
relief  could  be  extended  to  him.  It  was  on  my  joining  him,  from 
behind,  when  he  first  gave  the  alarm,  that  I  came  in  contact  with  the 
thousands  of  infuriated  insects.  I  sprung  into  a  bush  for  shelter  ;  but 
there  I  got  no  adequate  covering  from  their  onset.  In  my  attempt  to 
free  myself  from  agony  and  entanglement  I  immediately  slid  over  a 
precipice,  tearing  both  my  clothes  and  body  among  the  thorns  in  the 
rapid  descent  of  about  forty  feet.  From  the  number  of  bees  which 
s'till  encompassed  me  and  multiplied  upon  me,  and  my  inability  to 
move  from  them,  I  had  a  pretty  strong  impression  upon  my  mind  that, 
unless  God  himself  specially  interposed  in  my  behalf,  all  my  wander- 
ings and  journeyings  must  then  have  been  terminated,  though  by  the 
humblest  agency — the  insects  of  the  air.  That  interposition  I  ex- 
perienced !  I  had  kept  my  hold  of  a  pillow,  with  which  I  had  gone 
to  Mr.  Henderson  ;  and  tearing  it  open  on  the  bushes,  when  I  was 
unable  to  rise,  I  found  within  it,  most  unexpectedly,  about  a  couple  of 
square  yards  of  blanket.  It  was  to  me,  in  the  circumstances,  like  a 
sheet  sent  down  from  heaven  to  cover  my  head  ;  and  partially  pro- 
tected by  it,  I  lay  till  the  bees  left  me.  When,  from  the  poison  of  the 
numerous  stings  which  I  had  received,  violent  vomiting  and  other 
agitation  came  on,  and  my  pulse  failed  and  my  heart  fainted,  a  native, 
a  Thakoor,  one  of  the  aboriginal  sons  of  the  forest,  who  had  come  up, 
pulled  me  into  the  shade,  and  made  a  noise  which  was  heard  by  our 
friends,  including  Mrs.  Wilson,  who  had  set  out  in  search  of  me  after 
they  had  learned  from  Mr.  Henderson  that  I  had  shared  in  the 
calamity,  and  who  otherwise  would  probably  never  have  sought  for  me 
in  the  locality  in  which  I  was  lying.  Among  these  friends  was  Dr. 
Burn,  to  whose  treatment,  under  God,  our  resuscitation  is  in  a  great 
measure  owing.  We  were  conveyed  to  our  tents,  principally  in  native 
carts,  and  on  Saturday  we  were  brought  to  Bombay.  Through  the 
kindness  of  that  heavenly  Father  to  whose  grace  we  owe  our  signal 


436  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1848. 

deliverance,  we  are  both  doing  well,  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  we  hope 
in  a  few  days  to  be  free  from  all  pain,  if  not  inconvenience,  arising 
from  this  affliction.  I  have  known  instances  of  natives  losing  their 
lives  by  such  an  attack  as  we  encountered ;  and  our  friends  from  India 
will  explain  to  you  the  danger  from  which  we  have  escaped,  nay  from 
which  we  have  been  delivered.  t  They  compassed  me  about  like  bees,' 
is  one  of  the  appropriate  figures  of  the  Psalmist.  The  wild  bee  of 
India,  of  a  dark  chocolate  colour,  and  about  an  inch  and  an  eighth  in 
length,  is  of  the  same  variety  which  I  have  seen  in  the  Holy  Land  ; 
and  that  illustration  of  the  Psalmist  has  to  us  an  intensity  of  meaning 
which  we  had  never  before  realised.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  used  to 
think  that  John  the  Baptist's  fare  of  locusts  and  wild  honey  was  not  of 
a  very  indifferent  character  ;  but  I  now  see  that  at  least  it  must  have 
been  somewhat  difficult  of  acquisition. 

"  The  affliction  which  I  have  now  mentioned  is  that  of  the  body  ; 
but  those  of  the  soul,  often  experienced  by  Christian  missionaries  in  a 
heathen  land,  are  still  more  grievous.  One  of  this  latter  character  I 
have  likewise  to  bring  to  your  notice.  The  fond  and  ardent  hopes 
which  we  had  been  led  to  cherish  in  connection  with  the  young  Parsee 
whose  baptism,  in  most  interesting  circumstances  at  Surat,  I  brought  to 
your  notice  in  my  last  letter,  have  been  disappointed.  That  promising 
neophyte  has,  I  am  most  sorry  to  mention,  made  shipwreck,  for  the 
present  at  least,  of  his  Christian  profession,  and  returned  to  the  bosom 
of  his  caste.  This  he  has  done  under  powerful  influences  and  tempta- 
tions, arising  from  Parsees,  Hindoos,  and  Muhammadans  confederated 
together." 

A  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  ROME  SUGGESTED. 

"BOMBAY,  15th  April  1848. 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  CANDLISH. — I  am  delighted  to  observe  that  you 
contemplate  bringing  the  claims  of  Italy,  in  some  form  or  other,  before 
the  General  Assembly.  They  are,  in  my  opinion,  paramount,  in  pre- 
sent circumstances,  to  those  of  any  other  country  of  the  Continent.  A 
single  hint  I  venture  to  throw  out.  Mr.  Eobert  Stewart  has  mastered 
the  Italian  language,  and  mastered  the  Italian  movement.  Let  a 
substitute  be  provided  for  him  at  Leghorn,  and  let  him  be  set  free  to 
move  about  for  the  encouragement  of  that  evangelical  reform  which  has 
begun  to  appear  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Let  him  maintain  a 
confidential  correspondence  with  the  Church  at  home,  and  act  as  its 
general  agent.  He  could,  by  his  discreet  bearing,  judicious  counsel, 
and  steady  and  prudent  zeal,  subserve  the  cause  in  various  ways.  Per- 


1848.]  THE  STATE  OF  ANGLO-INDIAN  SOCIETY.  437 

haps  he  would  organise  a  congregation  of  Presbyterians  speaking  the 
English  language  at  Rome,  which  would  be  a  great  step  in  advance." 

NON-CHRISTIAN  TEACHERS  IN  MISSION-SCHOOLS. 

"  IZth  September  1848. 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  LEITH. — It  is  certainly  to  be  expected  that  there 
should  be  a  difference  of  opinion  among  Christians  about  many  sub- 
jects connected  with  the  economy  of  Christian  missions.  That  to 
which  you  refer  is  one  connected  with  which  I  myself  at  one  time  felt 
great  difficulties,  as  is  sufficiently  obvious  from  the  first  report  which  I 
presented  to  the  public ;  and  I  can  well  sympathise  with  any  mind 
still  entertaining  these  difficulties.  I  do  not  think  them  insurmount- 
able, however,  when  the  real  order  and  procedure  of  our  schools  is 
attended  to.  Our  heathen  teachers  bind  themselves  to  abstain  from 
teaching  heathenism  in  our  schools;  and,  from  the  closest  inspection 
of  them,  I  believe  that  they  do  .so  abstain.  We  use  their  services  only 
in  the  mechanical  processes  of  teaching.  The  Bible,  and  Bible  truth, 
found  in  our  books,  are  self-defensory,  and  to  a  certain  extent  self- 
explanatory.  Our  whole  hortatiye  and  explicative  teaching  of  Chris- 
tianity is  by  ourselves  and  native  Christian  assistants ;  and  it  is  so  full 
and  regular,  both  at  the  schools  and  mission-house,  that,  in  regard  to 
Christian  knowledge,  our  pupils  are  on  a  par  with  the  best  instructed 
in  our  native  land.  Four  of  our  Bombay  teachers  have  been  baptized 
since  the  commencement  of  the  Mission,  and  an  encouraging  number 
of  the  pupils.  The  young  Brahman  last  baptized  by  Mr.  Mitchell  of 
Poona  told  me  the  other  day,  that  he  owes  his  first  acquaintance  with 
Christianity  and  good  impressions  to  our  vernacular  schools  in  Bombay, 
and  their  collateral  services." 

TO  MR.  WEBB,  C.S.,  ON  THE  STATE  OF  ANGLO-INDIAN  SOCIETY. 

"  December  22,  1848. 

"  MY  DEAR  FRIEND. — I  am  glad  indeed  to  find  that  you  reserve  to 
yourself  the  liberty  of  again  returning  to  India.  Relative  ties  and 
wants  at  home  will  be  modified  in  a  few  years.  India  appears  to  me 
more  than  ever  to  need  the  presence  of  faithful  witnesses  and  labourers 
for  Christ.  There  is  a  spirit  of  hostility  to  true  holiness  among  the 
majority  of  our  countrymen  here,  which  threatens  to  have  an  out- 
break. Of  this  I  see  many  symptoms.  The  warlike  spirit,  generated 
and  inflamed  by  our  movements  on  the  frontier  since  the  invasion  of 
Afghanistan,  has  much  deteriorated  public  sentiment  and  feeling. 


438  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1848. 

Puseyism,  by  its  doctrines  of  sacramental,  ceremonial,  and  priestly 
grace,  has,  in  the  view  of  multitudes,  obscured  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Father,  and  the  saving  work  of  both  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
involved  them  in  mere  formalism,  imparted  to  them  a  delusive  peace, 
and  destroyed  their  charity  to  those  who  confide  in  the  Saviour. 
Plymouthism — the  recoil  from  Puseyism — while  gloriously  setting 
forth  the  sacred  duty  of  every  Church  availing  itself  of  the  gifts  and 
graces  of  all  its  members  for  the  edification  of  the  body  of  Christ,  runs 
counter  to  Christ's  ordinance  of  a  stated  ministry,  withdraws  many 
from  its  benefits  and  blessings  who  are  in  great  need  of  them,  and 
sadly  neglects  the  ignorant  and  perishing  multitudes  who  are  '  with- 
out.' The  disturbances  which  have  occurred,  both  in  the  West  and 
East,  have  intimidated  the  Government,  not  resting  on  the  principle 
that  *  righteousness  is  the  strength  of  a  nation,'  and  made  it  far  more 
tender  and  indulgent  to  heathenism,  and  inclined  to  give  it  support, 
than  it  was  wont  to  be  even  a  few  years  ago.  The  fruits  of  the 
ungodly  system  of  the  education  of  the  natives  so  long  pursued  by 
Government,  are  beginning  to  be  matured  in  the  conceit,  pride, 
infidelity,  and  insubordination  of  the  more  active  part  of  the  rising 
generation.  In  some  Mission  Institutions  the  evangelistic  element  is 
in  danger  of  being  subordinated  to  the  literary  and  scientific.  The 
heavenly  seed  is  not  so  copiously  sown  at  '  all  waters '  as  the  promises 
and  performances  of  God  lead  us  to  expect.  Pre-millennarianism  is 
more  anxious  to  get  old  saints  out  of  their  graves  than  to  get  new 
ones." 

SICKNESS  IN  INDIAN  EXILE. 

"  MAHABLESHWA.R,  27 th  December  1848. 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  TWEEDIE. — As  you  may  easily  suppose,  I  have 
felt  it  to  be  a  very  heavy  affliction  to  experience,  so  soon  after  my 
visit  to  Europe,  the  return  of  the  very  serious  and  dangerous  complaint 
which  forced  me  for  a  time  to  leave  the  shores  of  India,  and  when 
the  wants  of  this  great  country  and  varied  openings  of  Providence, 
and  encouragements  of  Christian  friends,  seemed  to  unfold  to  me  a 
wider  and  more  important  sphere  of  usefulness  than  ever.  What  has 
occurred,  however,  has  not  happened  without  the  divine  appointment, 
directing  it,  we  cannot  doubt,  to  most  important  ends,  and  leading  me 
I  trust  more  and  more  to  value  the  unspeakable  privilege  and  grace 
given  me  to  preach  among  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ.  It  is  a  matter  of  gratitude  to  me,  too,  that  during  my  illness 
I  was  divested  entirely  of  those  cares  and  anxieties  by  which  I  am 


1850.]  FIRST  MISSIONARY  TO  SINDH.  439 

sometimes  harassed  in  the  view  of  the  state  of  our  enterprise  in  this 
great  land ;  and  that  I  then  saw  and  felt  more  clearly  than  ever  the 
warrant  of  our  hope  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  accepted  sacrifice  of 
Christ,  and  the  glory  of  that  bliss  which  He  has  prepared  for  the 
humblest  and  most  unworthy  sinner  who  rests  in  the  righteousness  of 
God  as  thereby  manifested. 

'  When  languid  nature  in  deep  fever  burning, 

Feels  all  her  vital  springs  are  parched  and  dry, 
From  side  to  side  still  restless,  ever  turning, 

And  scared  by  phantoms  of  delirium  bye  ; 
How  sweet,  but  for  a  moment's  space,  to  ponder, 

Surrounded  by  those  bitter  burning  things, 
"Where  fresh  cool  life  and  gushing  health  flow  yonder 

From  pure  celestial  and  immortal  springs. '  " 

Accompanied  by  two  of  the  converts,  Bapu  Mazda  and 
Malharee,  Dr.  Wilson  reached  Kurachee  on  the  first  day  of 
1850,  to  begin  a  missionary  survey  of  what  he  then  described 
as  "  the  Ultima  Thule  "  of  British  conquest  to  the  north-west 
of  our  eastern  empire.  Two  years  before  one  of  the  American 
Presbyterian  Missionaries  to  the  Protected  Sikhs  had  sailed 
down  the  Indus.  But  Dr.  Wilson  could,  with  justice,  write 
thus  in  his  journal,  "4th  January  1850. — I  went  down  early 
in  the  morning  with  Bapu  to  the  bazaar  of  the  native  town, 
and  officiated  as  the  first  Protestant  missionary  who  has 
opened  his  lips  in  Sindh.  Many  of  the  people  understood 
Hindostanee  and  Goojaratee.  We  found  a  Muhammadan 
and  a  Brahman  able  to  read  the  Sindhee  in  the  Nagaree 
character,  and  we  gave  them  a  copy  of  the  large  portion  of 
the  Gospel  of  Matthew  as  translated  by  Major  Stack.  The 
demand  for  books  in  other  languages  was  very  considerable." 
While  in  the  steamer,  where  the  Eev.  Mr.  Cotes,  the  first 
assistant  chaplain  sent  to  Sindh,  was  his  fellow-passenger,  he 
had  held  discussions  in  Persian  with  a  Muhammadan  mer- 
chant from  Khelat.  Of  the  friends  who  competed  for  the 
pleasure  of  showing  him  hospitality  Dr.  Wilson  selected  Major 
Preedy,  the  Collector  or  civil  administrator,  because  he  could 
thus  have  access  to  all  the  official  facts  on  the  country  and 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSC 

people,  which,  with  a  map,  he  set  himself  at  once  to  compile, 
as  was  his  custom.  Even  in  far  Kurachee,  and  at  this  early 
period  of  British  occupation,  he  found  converts  and  students 
from  the  Christian  college  of  Dr.  Duff  holding  the  highest 
positions  and  influencing  all  around  them  for  good.  When 
examining  the  subscription  English  school  near  the  native 
town,  attended  chiefly  by  camp-followers  and  Sindhians 
proper,  and  expressing  surprise  at  its  efficiency,  he  discovered 
the  fact  thus  recorded  in  his  journal.  "  It  is  rather  remark- 
able that  the  influence  of  both  Bengal  and  Bombay  missions 
is  apparent  in  this  school.  Mr.  Moodoosoodun  Seel,  the 
teacher,  a  convert  to  Christianity  baptized  by  the  Eev.  Mr. 
Jennings,1  at  Cawnpore,  was  for  four  years  a  pupil  in  our 
Calcutta  Institution.  One  or  two  of  the  books  used  in  the 
school  were  composed  by  our  Bombay  missionaries ;  while  one 
of  the  most  promising  pupils,  baptized  by  myself,  is  the 
grandson  of  the  first  Hindoo  woman  who  was  admitted  into 
the  church  under  my  ministry,  and  who,  lately  under  much 
trial  and  affliction,  has  maintained  a  consistent  Christian 
profession.  She  was  delighted  to  see  me  in  this  distant  part 
of  the  world."  With  the  old  chieftain  the  Jam  of  the  Jokees, 
who  was  on  a  visit  to  the  new  port  from  his  native  hills,  and 
with  Naumahal,  the  most  important  Hindoo  resident,  who 
had  avenged  on  the  Ameers  their  forcible  circumcision  of  his 
father  by  assisting  the  English  army  at  its  first  appearance  on 
the  Indus,  Dr.  Wilson  had  interviews.  The  former  remarked — 

"  Sir  Charles  Napier  was  '  altogether  a  just  man.'  If  he  sincerely 
holds  this  opinion,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  his  conscience  has  responded 
to  this  straightforward  epistle  which  was  addressed  to  him  by  that 
distinguished  General  on  the  15th  April  1843:  '  JAM. — You  have 
received  the  money  of  the  British  for  taking  charge  of  the  dawk  (post)  ; 
you  have  betrayed  your  trust,  and  stopped  the  dawks  ;  and  you  have  also 

1  This  Chaplain  baptized  Maharaja  Dhuleep  Singh  also,  after  his  training 
under  the  American  Presbyterian  Mission,  and  fell  in  the  Delhi  massacre 
of  1857. 


1850.]  THE  CROCODILE  POOL  OF  KURACHEE.  441 

attacked  the  troops.  All  this  I  forgive  you,  because  the  Ameers  were 
here,  and  they  were  your  old  masters.  But  the  Ameers  are  now  gone 
from  Sindh  for  ever.  They  defied  the  British  power,  and  have  paid 
the  penalty  of  so  doing.  I,  as  the  Governor  of  Sindh,  am  now  your 
immediate  master.  If  you  come  in  and  make  your  salam,  and  promise 
fidelity  to  the  British  government,  I  will  restore  to  you  your  lands  and 
your  former  privileges,  and  the  superintendence  of  the  dawks.  If  you 
refuse,  I  will  wait  till  the  hot  weather  has  gone  past,  and  then  I  will 
carry  fire  and  sword  into  your  territory,  and  drive  you  and  all  belong- 
ing to  you  into  the  mountains  ;  and  if  I  catch  you  I  will  hang  you  as 
a  rebel.  You  have  now  your  choice ;  choose.  C.  J.  NAPIER.' 
Happily  for  the  Jam  he  chose  submission.  It  will  be  a  matter  of  no 
small  difficulty  to  convey  instruction  and  education  to  his  scattered 
tribe." 

In  the  lack  of  steamers  on  the  Indus,  about  to  be 
supplied  by  Lord  Dalhousie,  Dr.  Wilson  followed  a  track 
to  the  ancient  town  of  Sehwan,  on  camels,  through  the 
hilly  wilderness  which  divides  Sindh  from  Beloochistan. 
At  every  stage  the  geology  and  natural  history  of  the 
country  were  carefully  observed.  His  first  march  led  him  past 
the  Muggur  Pool,  or  crocodile  lake,  which  is  still  one  of 
the  sights  near  Kurachee.  It  is  formed  from  the  water  of 
some  hot  springs  within  150  square  yards — "  the  space  of 
a  barn-yard  pond," — and  accommodated  seventy-five  monsters 
of  all  sizes,  from  the  baby  of  a  cubit  long,  to  the  patriarch, 
Mor  Saheb,  who  was  eleven  feet  long,  and  was  marked  with 
red  lead,  and  worshipped  by  the  Hindoos.  "  They  seemed 
quite  tame,  as  they  allowed  us  to  lay  hold  of  their  tails,  and 
turned  round  at  the  call  of  the  fakeers,  expecting  a  dainty 
meal  on  some  unhappy  goat.  We  found  the  Mor  Saheb 
asleep,  but  poked  him  up  with  our  sticks.  He  opened  his 
jaws  about  a  cubit  wide,  and  then  hissed  and  blew  like  a  pair 
of  smith's  bellows.  He  had  lately  had  a  dreadful  duel  of  it 
with  a  competitor  for  the  championship,  and  as  the  battle 
was  a  drawn  one  and  threatens  to  be  renewed,  he  is  kept 
apart  from  his  fellows.  They  are  all  of  the  species  *  crocodilus 


442  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1850. 

communis.'  The  illiterate  keepers  form  a  community  of 
Muhammadans  more  remarkable  for  the  practice  of  pleasant- 
ries than  austerities.  They  both  give  and  get  in  marriage, 
and  live  quite  comfortably  with  the  gardens  and  fields  which 
the  popular  superstition  has  permitted  them  to  appropriate, 
and  with  the  offerings  presented  at  the  shrine  of  their  founder, 
which  they  take  care  to  keep  in  good  repair."  They  could 
not  read  the  Injil  in  Arabic,  so  that  a  copy  was  not  put  in 
their  hands.  Delayed  by  a  thunderstorm,  he  "  resolved  to 
take  a  practical  lesson  in  natural  history." 

"9th  January  1850. — I  repaired  to  the  pool  of  the  crocodiles.  It 
was  with  difficulty  that  I  could  rouse  some  of  those  hideous  reptiles 
lying  basking  in  the  sun  like  trunks  of  the  date-tree  covered  with  mud. 
I  dropped  the  shell  of  a  cocoa  nut  on  the  cranium  of  Mor  Saheb's  rival, 
which  made  him  start  from  his  sleep,  and  run  straight  into  the  pool 
with  a  speed  which  I  little  expected.  I  observed  a  pony  standing  in 
the  pool,  eating  some  tufts  of  grass,  without  the  slightest  fear  of  its 
companions.  When  I  asked  a  boy  why  the  crocodiles  did  not  gobble 
it  up,  he  said,  '  How  should  they  devour  it  without  a  huhim  (order)  ? 
they  are  contented  with  what  is  given  to  them  !'  According  to  this 
view  of  matters  some  naughty  boys  might  take  a  lesson  from  them. 
The  Muhammadans  make  the  taming  of  them  a  great  wonder,  as 
doubtless  it  is  ;  and  the  ancient  Egyptians  did  the  same.  Though  they 
do  not  worship  them  themselves  they  have  no  objection  that  the 
Hindoos  should,  and  to  share  the  spoil.  Serpents,  we  see,  are  not  the 
only  <  creeping  things '  into  which  the  glory  of  the  incorruptible  God 
has  been  changed  by  foolish  and  apostate  man. 

"  10^. — We  saw  to-day  a  considerable  number  of  locusts.  Our 
guides  ate  of  them  with  nearly  as  much  relish  as  we  do  of  a  dish  of 
prawns.  We  passed  a  few  Jat  herdsmen.  They  are  the  descendants 
of  a  Scythian  tribe  (the  GET^B  of  the  West).  Those  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  Muggur-Peer  were  JoJcees.  The  thermometer  stood  in  the 
shade  at  70°  at  one  o'clock.  In  the  evening  I  addressed  the  -whole  of 
our  cavalcade  ;  and  some  of  its  members  listened  with  much  attention. 

"  1 4th. — We  passed  a  large  quantity  of  petrified  wood,  like  that  near 
Cairo,  about  4  kos  (8  miles)  from  the  end  of  our  journey,  and  carried  off 
some  characteristic  specimens.  There  were  many  rounded  concretions 
of  nummulite  near  it,  some  of  which  we  also  put  into  our  bags. 
Among  the  large  tamarisk  bushes  I  observed,  for  the  first  time  in 


1850.]  THROUGH  THE  SINDH  DESERT  TO  SEHWAN.  443 

India,  the  pendant  titmouse.  My  attention  was  first  directed  to  it 
by  its  peculiar  chirp.  It  called  up  many  pleasing  associations  in  my 
mind,  and  to  this  circumstance  it  owed  its  escape  from  the  destructive 
missiles  of  my  servant.  I  noticed  afterwards  the  starling  stealthily 
jumping  and  hopping  among  the  bushes,  and  some  ugly  vultures  in  the 
leeward  of  a  dead  camel  which  the  sun  was  cooking  for  their  delicious 
repast. 

"  1*1  th. — This,  I  think,  was  one  of  the  coldest  mornings  we  have 
yet  had,  the  thermometer  at  sunrise  standing  at  38°  in  the  tent.  Before 
we  started  a  10  A.M.  it  had  risen  to  68°.  Our  road  was  much  as 
yesterday,  though  a  little  more  to  the  west,  till  the  afternoon,  when, 
after  passing  over  the  shoulder  of  a  small  hill,  we  found  ourselves 
turning  in  the  contrary  direction,  and  emerging  on  the  plain  of  the 
Indus,  north  of  the  Lakhee  mountains,  and  south  of  the  lake 
Munchur,  and  the  Aral  proceeding  from  it  in  the  direction  of  Sehwan. 
The  river  was  not  visible ;  but  we  observed  the  smoke  of  two  steamers 
rising  from  it,  in  one  of  which,  we  afterwards  learned,  was  the  Governor- 
General  on  his  way  to  Bombay.  It  was  pleasing  indeed  for  us  to  see 
these  tokens  of  civilisation  in  this  comparatively  barbarous  land,  and 
still  more  pleasing  for  us  to  contrast  the  most  fertile  and  productive 
portion  of  the  valley  of  the  Indus  into  which  we  had  entered,  with  the 
Barren  desert  in  which  we  had  been  wandering  for  the  last  ten  days. 

"  1 8th. — I  reached  Sehwan  at  1 1  o'clock  A.M.,  and  ascended  the 
ruins  of  the  fort,  where  Captain  Partridge,  the  Deputy  Collector,  kindly 
ordered  a  tent  to  be  pitched  for  me  in  the  neighbourhood  of  his  home, 
and  from  which  I  could  have  an  excellent  view  of  the  surrounding 
country.  This  view  is  very  interesting.  The  many  green  fields, 
especially  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  are  very  refreshing  to  the  eye. 
The  mountains  beyond  them  are  absolutely  sterile.  No  hills  are  here 
visible  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Indus.  The  river  is  about  a  kos  (2  miles) 
distant  from  the  old  fort.  It  is  certainly  a  magnificent  stream.  The 
whole  scene  appeared  to  me  as  having  much  of  an  Egyptian  character, 
especially  in  its  fruitful  fields  and  contiguous  desert.  The  fort,  too,  is 
like  one  of  the  Tels  or  mounds  of  ruins  which  I  visited  in  the  north- 
east of  Egypt  in  184*7.  The  town  of  Sehwan,  which  I  traversed  and 
reconnoitered  in  the  evening,  has,  with  its  narrow  and  winding  streets, 
and  houses  and  cottages  of  clay  and  chopped  straw,  its  analogues  also 
on  the  banks  of  the  Nile. 

"  19th. — This  morning  I  re-examined  Arrian's  account  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Alexander  the  Great  connected  with  the  Indus.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  Sehwan,  where  I  now  am,  and  which  at  present  is  written 


444  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1850. 

by  the  Brahrnans  Sinhawan,  is  the  Sindomana  of  that  author,  whose 
king,  probably  denominated  from  the  place,  is  called  by  Arrian  Sambus, 
and  by  Plutarch  Sabbas.  This  identification  is  not  new,  though  the 
reading  of  the  last  named  author  has,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  not  been 
referred  to  in  its  confirmation.  The  Brahmans  here,  as  I  have  learned 
from  themselves,  esteem  Sehwan  the  Sauvtr  of  the  Mahabha"rat,  etc. 
Kakaldas,  the  most  learned  of  their  number,  of  the  Pushkar  caste,  says 
to  me  that  the  most  ancient  name  of  Haidardbad  was  the  city  of  Patola, 
which  doubtless  is  the  origin  of  Arrian's  PATTALA,  at  the  head  of  the 
Delta.  He  was  surprised  at  the  inference  which  I  drew  from  it,  as  he 
is  entirely  ignorant  of  the  Greek  accounts  of  Alexander.  The  claims 
of  Tatta,  or  rather  Thatd,  which  have  been  generally  admitted  since 
the  days  of  Robertson,  must  now  be  dismissed.  The  OXYDRACI^E  of 
Arrian  I  would  not  place  with  Mr.  H.  T.  Prinsep  in  Kachi,  but  at 
Uch,  below  Multan,  with  Sir  Alexander  Burnes.  Porus  was  probably 
the  king  of  some  Pura — Puras,  in  the  pure  form — a  city,  so  denomi- 
nated by  way  of  distinction,  in  the  same  way  as  we  have  Taxilas,  the 
king  of  Taxila,  probably  the  Chelas  of  M.  Court. 

"  20th,  Sabbath. — I  have  been  occupied  throughout  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  day  in  conversing  with  and  addressing  different  companies 
of  natives  who  have  visited  me  at  my  tents,  and  delivering  to  them 
religious  books  and  tracts.  The  Gurmukhi  character,  in  which  the 
Granth  or  Book  of  the  Sikhs  is  written,  seems  better  known  to  the 
Hindu  merchants  than  the  Devandgari  or  Shdstri  as  it  is  here  called, 
in  which  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  translated  into  Sindhee  by  Capt.  Stack, 
and  edited  by  Dr.  Stevenson,  has  been  lithographed  ;  but  it  seems  very 
desirable  that  a  knowledge  of  the  latter  should  be  propagated  in  the 
country.  I  went  over  a  part  of  the  Sindhee  Gospel  with  the  learned 
Brahman  Kakaldas  ;  and  he  allowed  that  it  was  translated  into  the 
proper  language  of  the  country,  of  which  there  are  several  dialects. 
One  of  these  dialects  he  considers  the  Kachee,  in  which  language  I  pre- 
sented him  with  a  copy  of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  as  translated  by  the 
late  Eev.  James  Gray,  and  edited  by  myself  for  the  Bible  Society. 
This  translation  he  found  perfectly  intelligible  ;  and  I  consequently 
gave  away  a  few  copies  of  it  to  other  Sindhians  able  to  peruse  it. 
Among  the  recipients  was  a  very  intelligent  man  named  Girdhardas,  a 
follower  of  Nanak  and  the  Granth  of  the  Sikhs,  without  reckoning 
himself  a  member  of  their  community.  I  had  noticed  in  the  contents 
of  the  Granth  the  title  of  a  Marathee  poem  by  Namdeva,one  of  the  oldest  of 
the  Marathee  poets  ;  and  Girdhardas  confirmed  me  in  my  opinion  of  the 
remarkable,  and  hitherto  unnoticed  appropriation  of  this  work  by  the 


1850.]  DRUGS  V.  WINE MEETING  WITH  DR.  DUFF.  445 

followers  of  Ndnak  in  the  Punjab.  He  admitted  to  me  the  analogy  of 
the  doctrines  of  Kabeer  and  Nanak.  I  directed  his  attention  and  that  of 
others  to  some  of  the  principal  objections  to  be  urged  against  them  both 
theologically  and  philosophically,  and  to  the  great  themes  of  sin  and 
the  Saviour  as  set  forth  in  the  Christian  Scriptures. 

"  24th. — The  inhabitants  of  Sehwan  are  already  tolerably  well 
aware  of  our  detestation  of  Pir  (Saint)  worship.  The  numerous  beggars 
who  used  to  assail  me  on  my  arrival  in  the  name  of  Lai  Shah  Baz, 
now  make  their  appeals  in  the  name  of  Khudd,  the  only  living  and  true 
God.  Some  of  these  beggars  are  rather  formidable  characters,  as  they 
use  large  quantities  of  bhang  (hemp)  and  other  narcotic  and  intoxicating 
drugs,  to  the  dangerous  excitement  of  their  passions  and  permanent 
impairment  of  their  judgment.  Well  might  it  have  been  for  the 
followers  of  Muhammad  had  they  been  allowed  the  moderate  use  of 
simple  unadulterated  wine.  In  their  deprivation  of  it  they  have 
sought  out  many  evil  inventions,  as  bhang,  opium,  etc.,  the  mischief  of 
which  is  apparent  through  the  whole  empire  of  Islamism,  from  the 
Carpathian  mountains  to  the  Kashmir  lake. 

"  2,9th. — Among  my  auditors  at  worship  was  a  poor  renegade 
Koman  Catholic  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Bassein,  who  has  been  for 
some  years  settled  in  Sindh,  and  who  abjured  his  Christianity  in  the 
presence  of  the  Muhammadans  at  least,  to  obtain  a  wife.  He  has  now 
listened  to  the  truth  on  five  or  six  occasions  since  I  came  to  Sehwan. 
He  professes  to  be  penitent ;  and  if  I  give  him  any  encouragement  he 
would  go  with  me  to  Bombay.  But  where  he  has  dishonoured  Christ 
before  men  he  should  first  acknowledge  Christ  before  men. 

"  31st. — I  translated  the  two  first  chapters  of  one  of  my  tracts  into 
Persian  in  my  tent  at  the  river-side.  On  the  completion  of  this  ex- 
ercise I  took  hold  of  my  telescope,  and  sweeping  with  it  the  Indus 
before  me  to  the  north,  I  discerned  what  I  took  to  be  Dr.  Duff's  boat 
gently  dropping  down  the  river  and  approaching  the  spot  where  I  was 
encamped.  My  ardent  hopes  and  wishes  were  realised  ;  and  we  soon 
embraced  one  another  with  the  heart  as  well  as  with  the  hand.  The 
emotions  of  both  of  us,  meeting  at  the  very  ends  of  the  earth  after  an 
interval  of  ten  years  so  eventful  to  our  families,  our  missions,  and  our 
Church,  and  after  multifarious  labours  and  sufferings,  and  extended 
travel  by  land  and  by  sea  by  both  of  us,  were  well  nigh  overpowering. 
The  gracious  and  faithful  providence  of  God  to  us  both  it  was  impos- 
sible for  us  to  overlook." 

By  the  battlefield  of  Meeanee  and  the  fort  of  Haidarabad, 


446  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1850. 

where  the  Governor-General  had  just  before  received  the 
homage  of  the  chiefs  and  landholders  of  Sindh,  the  two 
missionaries  went  slowly  on  to  Tatta,  whence  they  struck 
across  the  delta  to  Kutch,  through  the  salt  desolation  of  its 
Eunn,  and  surveyed  the  Irish  mission  stations.  At  Surat 
they  took  steamer  to  Bombay,  whence  the  presbytery  sent 
home  to  their  Church,  by  Dr.  Duff,  a  powerful  appeal  for  more 
missionary  agents.  In  his  periodical  letter  to  the  home 
committee  Dr.  Wilson  described  the  speech  of  Dr.  Duff  at  the 
annual  examination  of  the  college  as  exciting  a  controversy 
on  the  subject  of  the  purely  secular  and  often  antichristian 
education  in  the  Government  schools,  which  did  not  subside 
till  it  issued  in  reform  in  1854.  He  also  recorded  the  death 
of  an  old  student,  Madhavarao  Moroji,  who  had  won  the 
admiration  of  the  political  officers  by  his  influence  as  tutor  of 
the  chief  of  Jamkhundee.  He  lived  and  died  like  many 
since,  a  Christian  in  all  but  the  name.  Through  not  a  few 
like  him  the  missionary  colleges  in  India  are  honeycombing 
Hindoo  society. 

To  Captain  EASTWICK,  C.B.  "BOMBAY,  17 'th  April  1850. 

"  MY  DEAR  CAPTAIN  EASTWICK. — I  have  just  returned  from  an 
interesting  journey  in  Sindh,  the  scene  of  your  important  political 
labours  in  this  distant  East.  I  am  of  opinion  that  a  good  deal  may 
yet  be  made  of  that  province.  The  people  seem  to  like  the  English 
government.  This  is  some  consolation  to  us  amidst  the  misgivings 
which  exist  as  to  our  treatment  of  the  Ameers.  I  read  your  able 
speech  in  their  favour,  and  the  two  blue  books,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Indus.  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Ameers  at  last  intended  to 
crush  us  if  they  could,  but  that  some  palliation  could  have  been  found 
in  the  fact  that  they  were  dogged  and  driven  to  desperation.  I  felt, 
too,  that  if  Pottinger  and  yourself  had  been  at  your  quondam  posts, 
this  would  not  have  been  the  issue.  I  was  sorry  that  I  had  not  your 
"brother's  Dry  Leaves  with  me  during  my  wanderings  and  meanderings 
in  Young  Egypt.  Your  friend,  the  Bev.  Mr.  Cotes,  was  my  fellow- 
passenger  to  Kurachee.  He  has  a  very  vigorous  and  energetic  mind, 
and  is  deeply  interested  in  the  improvement  and  the  conversion  of 
the  natives,  which  I  always  reckon  a  good  sign  in  a  chaplain.  I  am 


1850.]  POLITICAL  AND  EDUCATIONAL  REFORM.  447 

just  sending  off  a  teacher  for  an  English  school  which  he  wishes  to 
establish  at  Haidarabad.  I  missed  both  Mr.  Pringle  and  the  Governor- 
General  on  their  descent  of  the  river  by  a  few  hours.  By  the  bye,  the 
Governor-General  was  very  reserved  in  the  Durbar  he  held  at  Haidara- 
bad, which  is  rather  to  be  regretted.  He  gave  great  satisfaction  to  the 
folks  in  Bombay. 

"  You  will  speedily  have  a  great  many  questions  raised  in  con- 
nection with  this  great  country  in  the  prospect  of  the  discussion  of  the 
question  of  a  new  Charter  to  the  Company.  I  hope  that  every  question 
of  importance  will  be  settled  without  party  feeling  and  prejudice. 
While  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  government  of  the  Company  should 
undoubtedly  continue,  I  think  that  it  will  be  better  to  shape  out  a 
course  of  administration  for  it  by  Acts  of  Parliament,  than  to  place  it 
under  arbitrary  control.  Encouragement  should  be  given  on  a  large 
scale  to  the  employment  in  India  of  European  capital  and  European 
enterprise,  destitute  of  which,  the  country,  which  may  be  made  so  pro- 
ductive, will  be  involved  in  fiscal  ruin.  All  the  Government  contribu- 
tions to  the  temples,  which  are  not  chartered,  I  think  should  be 
devoted  to  the  support  of  elementary  education  through  every  town 
and  village  of  the  country  ;*  and  of  education  not  wholly  paid  for  by 
Government,  but  partly  supported  by  the  people  in  private  Institutions, 
provision  being  made  only  for  the  teaching  of  secular  knowledge  ; 
while  all  should  be  at  liberty,  on  their  own  responsibility,  to  supple- 
ment that  education  by  religious  instruction  as  they  may  please," 

In  this  letter  we  find  one  of  the  too  few  examples  in  his 
correspondence  of  that  political  insight  as  well  as  information, 
and  those  broad  economic  views  regarding  European  enter- 
prise as  well  as  the  prosperity  of  the  natives,  with  which,  in 
conversation,  Dr.  Wilson  used  to  delight  his  friends.  These 
questions,  too,  no  less  than  his  scholarly  and  scientific  re- 
searches, he  subordinated  to  the  absorbing  aims  of  the  Chris- 
tian missionary  and  the  exacting  work  of  the  practical 

1  When,  in  one  of  the  frequent  and  friendly  discussions  between  the 
Church  of  England  Evangelical  chaplains  and  the  Serampore  missionaries  in 
Aldeen,  the  home  of  Brown  and  Henry  Martyn,  Dr.  Marshman  asked 
Claudius  Buchanan  whence  he  expected  to  get  funds  for  the  endowment  of  the 
ecclesiastical  establishment  set  up  in  1813,  he  replied,  "The  temple  lands 
will  supply  the  churches  and  the  Brahmans'  lands  will  do  for  the  ministers." 
To  this  the  Nonconformist  and  eager  educationist  replied  with  emphasis, 
"  You  will  never,  never  obtain  them,  Dr.  Buchanan." 


448  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1850. 

philanthropist.  In  all  respects  his  programme  of  reform  was 
soon  carried  out,  save  in  the  disendowment  of  idol  shrines 
'and  mosques,  but  the  property  rights  of  these  alone  are  now 
protected  only  by  the  civil  courts.  The  mal-administration 
of  the  priestly  guardians  side  by  side  with  the  growth  of 
intelligence  and  Christianity  among  the  people,  may  yet 
result  in  the  voluntary  application  to  education  of  the  vast 
temple  lands  which  cannot  be  squandered, 

The  continued  success  of  the  mission,  and  the  address  on 
the  Christian,  as  opposed  to  the  purely  secular,  education  of 
native  youth,  raised  a  storm  in  two  quarters.  The  local  press 
and  certain  Professors  of  the  Government  College  waged  a 
bitter  controversial  warfare  against  missionaries,  urging  that 
these  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  education,  the  effects  of 
the  positive  moral  and  spiritual  elements  of  which  they  did 
not  relish.  And  communities  like  the  Parsees,  still  resenting 
the  aggressiveness  of  truth  so  as  to  confine  their  youth  to  the 
Government  schools,  began  to  find  that  even  there  truth 
pursued  the  conscience,  and  would  not  leave  it  alone  till 
many  became  almost,  and  some  had  the  courage  to  profess 
themselves  openly  altogether,  Christians.  It  was  about  this 
time  that  the  fermenting  process  was  seen  to  work  most 
evidently,  as  the  first  generation  of  educated  youth  went 
forth  from  the  Mission  college,  on  the  one  hand ;  and  on  the 
other,  the  persistent  discussions,  translations  of  Scripture  and 
other  publications,  preachings,  and  tours,  began  to  tell  on  the 
varied  native  communities,  already  affected  by  the  numerous 
and  often  nameless  influences  of  growing  western  civilisation. 
Among  the  educated  cases  were  not  unfrequent  like  that  of 
Victorinus,  as  described  by  Simplicianus,  the  spiritual  father 
of  Ambrose,  to  Augustine.1  From  the  unlearned  in  Bombay, 
and  all  the  region  around  the  Indian  Ocean  of  which  it  is 
the  commercial  centre,  a  small  but  steady  stream  of  inquirers 

1  See  the  extract  from  his  -Confessions  at  the  beginning  of  this  Chapter. 


1850.]  HIS  SCHOOL  OF  THE  CATECHUMENS.  449 

flowed  in  to  what  had  become  no  less  a  school  of  the  cate- 
chumens, spiritually  and  intellectually,  than  the  famous 
Didaskaleion  Catechumenorum  of  Pantsenus  (the  first  his- 
torical missionary  to  India),  Clement  and  Origen  at  Alexandria. 
Nor  does  the  parallel  fail  on  the  female  side.  For  just  as 
that  Christian  institute  made  the  Egyptian  Serapeum  the 
last  fortress  of  decaying  polytheism,  so  the  Bombay  college 
stirred  up  the  purely  Hindoo  and  Parsee  communities  to 
rival  efforts  in  education.  Such  passages  as  this  are  not  in- 
frequent in  Dr.  Wilson's  missionary  correspondence :  When, 
on  10th  May  1850,  appealing  to  his  home  committee  for  more 
liberality,  and  announcing  that  Mrs.  Wilson  had  been  com- 
pelled to  add  two  more  female  schools  to  the  Ambrolie  estab- 
lishment, he  adds : — 

"  The  students  of  the  Elphinstone  College  have  been  setting  up 
some  schools  of  their  own  from  which  all  Christianity  is  excluded,  and 
they  have  sought  to  fill  them  from  our  schools  by  prejudicing  the 
minds  of  their  parents.  I  have  got  hold  of  one  of  their  circulars,  with 
which  I  could  easily  expose  their  system  ;  but  I  think  it  better  to 
allow  them  to  work  it  to  death  themselves.  Dadobd  Pandurang  (the 
president  of  their  society,  and  superintendent  of  Government  vernacular 
schools  on  a  salary  of  Rs.  300  per  mensem,)  called  on  us  the  other  even- 
ing and  oifered  his  own  daughter,  and  those  of  some  of  his  friends,  to 
Mrs.  Wilson  as  pupils,  and  they  now  come  regularly  under  the  charge 
of  a  peon.  When  Mrs.  Wilson  congratulated  him  on  having  already 
taught  his  wife  and  daughter  to  read,  lie  said,  l  This  is  all  the  fruit  of 
what  I  myself  learned  in  Ambrolie  many  years  ago/  The  knitting 
and  sewing  here  are  great  recommendations  to  him.  He  abhors 
Hinduism  and  respects  Christianity.  You  must  remember  him.  His 
companion,  Ndna  Narayan,  is  now  English  translator  to  the  Gaikwar, 
on  a  salary  of  Rs.  175  a  month." 

DR.  WILSON   TO   HIS   PARENTS. 

"  25th  July  1850. — I  lately  heard  from  my  two  young  Abyssinian 
friends,  indeed,  I  may  say,  '  sons  in  the  Gospel.'  They  have  given  to 
me  the  two  African  lionesses  presented  to  them  by  the  king  of  their 
country.  These  are  objects  of  great  curiosity  to  the  natives  of  Bombay, 
hundreds  of  whom  come  to  see  them  in  my  '  compound.'  I  find  it, 

2G 


450  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1850. 

however,  very  expensive  to  maintain  them,  as  they  devour  a  goat  at  a 
meal.  I  have  been  offered  a  thousand  rupees  for  them,  and  I  shall 
soon  part  with  them,  devoting  the  proceeds  to  the  enlightenment  of 
Abyssinia.  I  must  not  forget  to  tell  the  children  with  you  that  they 
are  very  tame.  They  followed  Gabru  and  Maricha  for  several  days' 
journey  like  dogs.  When  they  came  to  a  bush,  when  they  were  tired, 
they  used  to  get  into  it  and  rest  till  they  were  thumped  up  with  clubs 
to  proceed  on  the  march.  Their  growl  is  terrible.  I  have  two  other 
curious  animals  beside  them — a  squirrel  about  the  size  of  a  cat,  with  a 
tail  like  a  sweep's  brush  ;  and  a  pangolin,  or  ant-eater,  with  horny 
scales  lying  on  its  back  like  a  covering  of  tiles  on  a  house.  I  took 
home  a  stuffed  specimen  of  the  last-mentioned  animal,  which  some  of 
you  may  remember  to  have  seen.  The  natives  of  this  country  call  it 
the  '  tiled  cat.'  These  tiles  prevent  it  being  stung  to  death  by  bees, 
or  bitten  by  the  ants,  on  which  it  lives." 

RELATION  OF  THE  DIFFERENT  RACES  IN  INDIA  TO  CHRISTIANITY. 

"  I  must  make  a  general  remark,  not  unworthy  of  the  attention  of 
the  friends  of  missions  at  home.  The  first  races  who  entered  India 
were  undoubtedly  from  Turania,  or  the  eastern  Scythia.  They  are 
principally  represented  at  present  by  the  different  nations  and  tribes  in 
India  located  to  the  south  of  the  river  Krishna,  and  speaking  the 
Canarese,  Tooloo,  Telugoo,  Malayalam,  and  Tamul  languages,  which 
have  still  a  great  affinity  with  the  Tartar  dialects.  The  distinctive 
peculiarity  of  the  religion  of  these  races  is  the  worship  of  ghosts  and 
demons  whom  they  seek  to  conciliate  by  offerings  of  blood.  The  races 
which,  in  the  second  instance,  entered  India  were  from  Ariana,  the 
eastern  part  of  Iran,  or  Persia,  probably  the  original  seat  of  the  Indo- 
Teutonic  family  of  nations.  They  are  located  in  India  to  the  north  of 
the  Krishna ;  and  their  languages  are  all  derivatives  from  the  Sanscrit, 
which  is  cognate  with  the  Persian,  Gothic,  Pelasgic,  Greek,  Latin,  and 
many  other  European  languages.  Of  these  last-mentioned  races,  in 
their  eastern  dispersions,  the  *  prayer-bearers,'  or  '  Brahmans/  by 
degrees  became  the  hereditary  priests.  At  first  their  worship,  as  developed 
in  the  Vedas,  was  directed  to  the  personified  agents  and  elements  of 
nature.  Afterwards  it  assumed  the  monstrous  mythological  and  sub- 
limated spiritual  form,  which  is  developed  in  the  Epics,  Law-books,  and 
Puranas.  The  Aryan  tribes  in  conquering  India,  urged  by  the  Brah- 
mans, made  war  against  the  Turanian  demon-worship,  but  not  always 
with  complete  success.  The  mountain  and  forest  aboriginal  tribes  are 


1850.]  HIS  VARIED  WORK  FOR  ALL  RACES.  451 

still,  as  far  as  Bralimanism  is  concerned,  sturdy  nonconformists.  In 
many  districts,  as  in  Canara,  referred  to  by  Shamrao,  Bralimanism  has 
been  compelled  to  make  a  compromise,  and  now  fattens  on  the  abund- 
ant offerings  made  to  the  devils.  It  is  among  the  Turanian  races,  and 
the  devil- worshippers,  as  in  Tinnevelly  and  other  places  in  the  south 
of  India,  which  have  no  organised  priesthood  and  bewitching  literature, 
that  the  converts  to  Christianity  are  most  numerous.  The  day  of  their 
merciful  visitation  seems  to  be  at  hand.  That  of  the  Brahmanical 
Aryan  tribes,  with  all  their  pride  of  caste  and  systematic  creed,  seems 
to  be  more  distant.  No  equitable  comparison  of  the  results  of  Christian 
missions  in  India  can  be  made  with  the  forgetfulness  of  this  fact." 

Dr.  WILSON  to  Dr.  DUFF. 

"  2d  November  1850. — One  of  our  Koman  Catholic  pupils,  a  youth 
of  fair  talents  and  attainments,  lately  entered  the  Free  Church.  An- 
other of  our  pupils  was  baptized  lately  at  Mangalore.  There  are  some 
hopeful  characters  about  us  ;  but  they  present  no  very  decided  appear- 
ances at  present.  Hadjee,  the  young  Beloochee,  gets  on  well,  and  so  does 
a  Brahman  who  followed  us  from  Kathiawar.  Altogether,  I  have  a  very 
full  house  here.  The  last  individual  who  has  joined  us  is  a  Chaldean 
Christian  boy  (R.  C.)  from  Baghdad.  I  have  already  taught  him  to 
read  Arabic,  by  giving  him  myself  a  daily  lesson.  I  continued  my 
Wednesday  evening  lecture  throughout  both  the  hot  and  rainy  seasons, 
and  it  has  been  well  attended  by  native  youth.  For  four  nights  I 
discoursed  on  the  Religious  History  of  Western  India,  as  illustrated  by 
its  ancient  Remains  ;  for  four,  on  the  introduction  and  diffusion  of  the 
Turanian  and  Iranian  races  in  India,  principally  with  a  view  to  the 
illustration  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  Brahmanism  ;  for  thirteen, 
on  Natural  Theology,  and  the  desirableness  and  necessity  of  a  Divine 
Revelation.  I  am  at  present  discussing  the  question,  Where  is  a  Divine 
Revelation  to  be  found  ?  and  in  connection  with  this  I  am  reviewing  the 
sacred  writings  of  the  Hindus,  according  to  their  classes.  I  have 
directed  a  good  deal  of  attention  lately  to  the  Vedas.  My  geological 
class,  which  meets  only  on  Friday  mornings,  is  a  very  select  one  ;  and 
the  native  gentlemen  attending  it.  Among  them  is  the  son  of  our 
principal  Hindoo,  Juggonath  Shunkurset,  who  is  never  absent." 

MRS.  WILSON   ON  BISHOP  DEALTRY. 

"  AMBROLIE,  16^  November  1850. 

"  The  two  lions  at  present  here  are  the  Nepaulese  ambassador  and 
suite  (Jung  Bahadoor),  and  the  Bishop  of  Madras  with  his  wife.  He  is 


452  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1850. 

Dr.  Dealtry,  who  was  for  a  long  time  at  Calcutta  as  Archdeacon.  We 
have  met  them  several  times.  He  is  an  excellent,  evangelical,  liberal- 
minded  man,  who  abhors  Puseyism,  and  takes  every  opportunity  of 
lifting  up  his  testimony  against  the  prevailing  errors  of  the  present 
times.  I  hope  his  visit  to  Bombay  may  do  good,  as  nearly  all  the 
chaplains  are  tinged  more  or  less  with  high  church  views  and  feelings. 
The  Bishop  and  his  party  breakfasted  with  us  yesterday  morning,  along 
with  a  few  other  friends.  He  kindly  examined  some  of  the  classes  of 
our  Institution,  and  expressed  himself  as  highly  pleased  with  all  he 
heard  and  saw.  We  had  also  a  good  many  of  the  girls  of  our  schools 
collected,  about  one  hundred  and  forty,  who  were  examined,  and  the 
Bishop  and  Mrs.  Dealtry  were  both  delighted  with  them,  and  seemed 
quite  'surprised  to  see  the  intelligent  countenances  of  the  little  things, 
and  to  hear  the  ready  manner  in  which  they  replied  to  the  questions 
put  to  them.  Indeed  it  was  not  a  little  gratifying  to  hear  the  Bishop 
say  he  had  seen  nothing  like  it  in  India,  and  it  was  a  scene  he  could 
never  forget.  He  never  says  what  he  does  not  feel,  and  he  is  not  afraid 
to  speak  out  the  truth.  He  is  so  much  opposed  to  the  Government 
system  of  education  in  India  (I  mean  the  exclusion  of  Bible  teaching 
from  its  seminaries),  that  he  has  never  visited  one  of  their  schools, 
though  again  and  again  requested  to  do  so.  We  have  been  asked  to 
accompany  the  Bishop  and  a  few  other  friends  to  Elephanta  this  after- 
noon. It  will  be  a  smaller  and  in  some  respects  a  more  congenial 
party  than  on  the  occasion  of  our  last  visit  to  the  caves." 

Bishop  DEALTRY  to  Dr.  WILSON. 

"BOMBAY,  25th  November  1850. 

"  MY  DEAR  FRIEND. — I  cannot  leave  this  island  without  offering  our 
warmest  thanks  to  you  and  Mrs.  Wilson  for  your  Christian  kindness 
and  attention  to  us.  We  can  never  forget  it,  I  assure  you  ;  and  both 
Mrs.  Dealtry  and  myself  have  formed  a  most  sincere  Christian  attach- 
ment to  you,  and  we  shall  carry  such  feelings  with  us  until  we  trust 
we  may  meet  in  the  everlasting  kingdom  of  our  Heavenly  Father.  I 
hope,  however,  that  we  may  meet  again  on  earth.  If  you  should  ever 
come  to  Madras  you  must  be  our  guests,  please  ;  and  we  shall  rejoice  to 
make  your  stay  there  as  happy,  or  at  least  attempt  it,  as  you  have  made 
ours  here.  God  bless  you,  and  pour  the  graces  of  His  grace  upon  your 
Mission,  and  make  you  the  honoured  instruments  of  gathering  many 
precious  wandering  souls  into  His  fold,  and  may  your  crown  at  last  be 
resplendent  with  such. — In  haste,  but  ever  yours  with  Christian  love, 

"  T.  MADRAS." 


1850.]  A  LEARNED  PARSEE  INQUIRER.  453 

TO   DR.   TWEEDIE   ON  A  LEARNED   PARSEE  INQUIRER. 

"  On  my  return  from  my  annual  evangelistic  tour,  which  this  year 
extended  to  the  province  of  Kathiawdr,  where  our  Irish  friends  so  ably 
and  faithfully  labour,  I  was  waited  upon  by  Bamanji  Dosabhai,  the 
most  learned  Oriental  scholar  among  the  Parsees  of  India,  and  the  son 
of  Dosabhai  Sorabji — the  priest  and  moonshee  who  was  hired  by  the 
Parsee  sanhedrim  to  write  a  reply  to  my  lecture  on  the  Vandidad, 
who  informed  me  that,  acting  on  the  advice  of  a  European  friend,  he 
had  lately  re-perused  the  controversy,  and  especially  my  own  two  works, 
and  had,  by  the  gracious  assistance  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that  Parseeism  is  utterly  false  and  that  Christianity  is  cer- 
tainly true.  On  this  he  put  into  my  hands  a  letter  in  English,  filling 
four  sheets,  and  expressive  of  his  views  and  feelings.  This  I  found  to 
be  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  touching  documents  which  I  have 
ever  perused.  After  showing  in  an  interesting  and  satisfactory  manner 
the  reasons  of  the  hope  that  is  in  him,  he  thus  concludes  : — '  Freedom 
of  opinion  and  liberty  of  conscience  being  the  leading  characteristics  of 
the  spirit  of  English  law,  I  consider  myself  fully  entitled  to  act  con- 
formably to  the  dictates  of  my  conscience,  and  am  therefore  ready  to 
undergo  the  sacred  rite  of  baptism,  in  doing  which,  I  will  incur  I  am 
afraid  the  displeasure  of  my  countrymen,  but  I  trust  I  shall  obtain 
the  favour  of  my  God/ 

"  I  am  sorry  that  I  am  not  yet  able  to  warrant  you  to  realise  the 
hopes  or  to  allay  the  fears  which  his  most  interesting  case  awakens. 
After  continuing  to  attend  me  for  instruction,  prayer,  and  conference 
for  some  time,  he  told  me  that,  suspicions  having  been  awakened  re- 
specting him,  he  felt  constrained  to  reveal  his  situation  to  his  family. 
This  he  did  in  a  Goojaratee  letter  addressed  to  his  father,  carefully 
prepared  by  himself  at  home,  and  copied  in  my  house,  from  which  it 
was  forwarded  to  its  destination,  after  he  had  asked  shelter  from  me 
till  the  storm  might  blow  over.  The  father,  on  receiving  the  tidings 
forwarded  to  him,  immediately  drove  to  my  house,  and  coming  into  its 
inner  rooms  without  any  warning,  'he  told  me  that  much  learning  had 
made  his  son  mad,  and  that  he  must  have  an  interview  with  him, 
which  was  immediately  granted.  On  seeing  his  son  he  embraced  him 
and  burst  into  tears,  and  told  him  that  if  he  did  not  return  to  see  his 
mother  she  would  immediately  destroy  herself.  '  You  have  nothing 
to  fear/  he  added,  '  you  will  ultimately  be  allowed  to  do  whatever 
you  like,  even  though  you  should  become  a  Muhammadan.'  On  the 
assurance  of  protection  the  son  said,  '  Well,  I  shall  go  to  see  my 


454  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1853. 

mother,'  and  left  the  house  with  his  father.  I  have  since  had  one 
reserved  note  from  him,  which  I  suppose  has  passed  through  the  hands 
of  his  father,  and  from  which  I  conclude  that  I  shall  not  again  see  him 
for  some  little  time.  I  have  native  testimony  that  he  stands  firm,  but 
of  course  I  feel  about  him  the  deepest  concern,  in  which  all  who  know 
of  his  case  fully  participate.  The  native  community  are  in  great  alarm 
about  him,  and  the  father  has  prevented  all  discussion  about  him  in 
the  native  papers,  except  in  the  Ckdbook,  which  rejoices  over  the 
calamity  on  sectarian  grounds." 

This  period  in  the  history  of  the  mission  was  fruitful  in 
such  cases,  as  well  as  in  others.  Now  a  father,  who  thirteen 
years  before  had  heard  Dr.  Wilson  at  Ajunta,  seeks  him  out  at 
Bombay,  unable  longer  to  rest  in  Hindooism,  and  returns  to 
bring  not  only  his  family  of  eight,  but  a  village  friend,  into  the 
one  fold.  Again,  his  last  tour  bears  fruit  at  the  same  time  as 
this  his  second,  in  the  baptism  of  Hadjee,  a  young  Beloochee, 
who  had  been  drawn  by  his  words  in  Sindh,  and  becomes  "the 
first  fruit  of  Sindh  unto  Christ."  By  the  hands  of  Mr.  Gust  he 
receives  an  epistle  in  Old  Testament  Hebrew  from  Amram  bin 
Saleemah,  the  chief  priest  of  the  Nablus  Samaritans,  and  replies 
in  like  style,  with  none  the  less  ardour  that  Dr.  M'Gown  had 
reported  from  Jerusalem  the  "  interesting  fact  that  some  of 
them  had  lately  applied  to  the  Bishop  for  admission  into  the 
Christian  or  rather  Protestant  Church;  that  they  were  first 
led  to  inquire  after  the  truth  by  Dr.  Wilson's  instructions 
when  he  visited  them,  and  since  then  by  a  Mr.  Williams. 
The  Bishop  had  sent  them  the  Scriptures,  and  set  up  schools 
among  them,  and  hoped  soon  to  do  more  to  find  out  how  far 
they  really  were  grounded  in  the  truth.  Dr.  M'Gown  spoke 
of  Dr.  Wilson  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm."  This  leads  Dr. 
Wilson  to  write  to  Dr.  Graham,  from  whom  Sir  Henry 
Havelock  had  brought  him  a  letter,  projecting  a  joint  tour  in 
Syria  to  establish  a  mission  in  the  Lebanon,  such  as  the  Free 
Church  subsequently  adopted.  Again,  the  drawing  of  the 
educated  native  mind  towards  Christianity  provokes  another 


1853.]        NEW  CATECHUMENS  AND  THE  NATIVE  CHURCH.         455 

"  habeas  corpus  "  case  in  the  Supreme  Court,  in  which  "  Sir 
Erskine  Perry,  who  had  handed  over  Shirpat  Sheshadri  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  the  intolerant  heathen,"  is  compelled  to 
allow  the  girl  Sai  "to  go  where  she  pleases,"  because  her 
Hindoo  father  preferred  the  mission.  The  vernacular  schools 
alone  are  this  time  temporarily  affected  by  the  native  excite- 
ment, while  nine  persons  join  themselves  to  the  class  of 
catechumens,  and  "  none  of  them  are  idlers."  Nor  is  the 
excitement  lessened  when  a  Parsee  youth  of  the  wealthiest 
family,  and  himself  possessor  of  Es.  300,000,  seeks  spiritual 
instruction. 

So  Dr.  Wilson  year  by  year  followed  the  greatest  of  mis- 
sionaries, Paul,  in  turning  the  world  upside-down.  In  1853 
the  whole  mission  agencies  of  his  church  in  Western  India 
embraced  2159  students  and  pupils,  of  whom  there  were  1413 
in  Bombay,  546  in  Poona,  and  200  in  Satara.  Of  the  whole 
number  one-fourth  were  females;  and  one-fourth  received  the 
higher  education  through  English  as  well  as  the  vernaculars. 
At  this  time  he  prepared  a  course  of  lectures  for  his  students 
at  Bombay,  and  for  the  English  society  both  there  and  at 
Mahableshwar,  on  "  The  Apostle  Paul  in  Greece ;  or  Chris- 
tianity in  contact  with  the  Hellenic  faith  and  manners  and 
the  Eoman  magistracy,  compared  with  Christianity  in  contact 
with  the  Hindoo  faith  and  manners  and  the  British  magis- 
tracy." Of  the  Native  Church,  consisting  of  126  adults,  of 
whom  55  were  communicants  and  42  baptized  adherents,  he 
could  write  that  it  was  in  a  prosperous  spiritual  state.  In 
1855  the  value  of  the  college  as  an  evangelising  no  less  than 
a  pioneering  agency,  showed  itself  in  the  baptism  of  the  best 
student,  Guuputrao  Ehogonath,  of  the  respectable  Parbhoo 
caste.  In  the  same  year  he  writes  to  Dr.  Tweedie  on  the 
13th  August : — 

"  I  had  the  pleasure  of  baptizing  Ismail  Ibraim,  the  first  Bohora 
who,  as  far  as  we  know,  has  yet  embraced  Christianity  in  India.     This 


456  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1855. 

young  man,  who  is  about  twenty-six  years  of  age,  made  my  accquaint- 
ance  a  year  ago,  when  he  soon  showed  a  disposition  to  embrace  Christi- 
anity, which  was  not  unnoticed  by  his  acquaintances,  who  resorted 
even  to  violence  to  prevent  him  coming  to  the  mission-house,  cruelly 
beating  him,  and  wounding  him  on  the  skull  so  severely  that  he  had 
to  be  sent  to  the  hospital.  His  own  safety  required  that  he  should 
have  accommodation  in  the  mission-house  ;  and  this  he  obtained, 
dwelling  in  the  same  room  with  Hadjee,  the  Sindhian  convert,  who  has 
been  of  great  use  to  him  both  by  way  of  precept  and  example.  I  gave 
him  regular  instruction  as  a  catechumen  from  the  time  he  came  to  us, 
through  the  medium  both  of  the  Goojaratee  and  Hindostanee  languages, 
with  which  he  is  acquainted.  He  is  likely  to  be  useful  as  a  Christian 
colporteur.  The  confraternity  of  Bohoras  is  noted  for  its  mercantile 
industry  and  application,  and  if  he  fulfil  our  hopes  by  carrying  its 
spirit  into  his  new  occupation,  under  the  sanctifying  influence  of  the 
Gospel,  he  will  be  a  valuable  accession  to  our  strength,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  he  has  appeared  among  us  not  so  much  as  a  student  as  a 
man  of  labour.  He  appears  thoroughly  divorced  from  Muhammad  and 
from  All,  the  son-in-law  of  Muhammad,  whom  the  Bohoras,  or  Initiated, 
according  to  the  meaning  of  the  Arabic  word  from  which  the  name  is 
derived,  esteem  an  improvement  upon  his  father-in-law,  having  a  higher 
degree  of  inspiration,  which  has  in  a  good  measure,  as  they  imagine, 
manifested  itself  among  his  successors,  recognised  by  the  Bohoras  and 
by  the  Ansairiyah,  Ismailiyah,  Drus,  and  Metawileh  of  Syria,  who  in 
religion  are  their  conquerors.  I  am  thankful  to  God  to  be  able  to 
report  the  baptism  by  Mr.  French  (now  Bishop  of  Lahore)  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  of  a  Bokhara  Jew,  several  times  mentioned 
to  you  by  Mr.  Murray  Mitchell,  with  whom  he  lived  for  some  time, — 
who  attended  our  Institution  for  several  years,  and  who  left  us  about 
two  years  ago  to  return  to  his  native  country  on  account  of  a  severe 
illness,  promising,  if  spared,  to  come  back  in  order  to  enter  the 
Christian  Church." 

Mrs.  Colin  Mackenzie,  whose  journal,  The  Camp,  the 
Mission,  and  the  Zenana,  had  been  received  in  Europe  as 
revealing  India  more  fully  than  any  book  since  Heber's,  had 
sketched  and  published  lithographs  of  the  converts  in  Bom- 
bay and  Calcutta.  Of  one  of  the  portraits  Dr.  Wilson  wrote  :— 
"  The  serene  piety  and  devotion  of  Yohan  Prem  are  well 
brought  out  in  the  likeness.  He  lives  on  the  word  of  God 


1855.]         THE  NEW  COLLEGE — EGBERT  NESBIT's  DEATH.  457 

and  prayer,  and  is  mighty  in  the  Scriptures.  By  many  of  the 
Natives  he  is  received  as  a  sort  of  curiosity ;  and  he  finds 
access  to  circles  into  which  others  cannot  penetrate.  He 
carries  the  testimony  of  Jesus  with  him  wherever  he  goes, 
and  he  brings  many  parties  to  the  mission-house  for  religious 
converse."  Narayan  Sheshadri  was  soon  after  ordained,  and 
Dhunjeebhoy,  who  had  been  evangelising  in  Goojarat  among 
his  countrymen,  baptised  his  first  converts  from  the  aboriginal 
Dhecls.  In  1854  Dr.  Wilson  thus  reported  the  conversion  of 
Baba  Pudmanjee,  the  ablest  Hindoo  student  of  the  college : 
"  Though  but  a  young  lad  he  is  already  a  Marathee  authority  of 
distinction.  I  know  no  native  so  able  to  wield  the  press  to  ad- 
vantage. His  modesty  is  as  remarkable  as  his  ability.  We  have 
looked,  and  laboured  and  prayed  for  his  conversion  for  years." 
Not  till  1855,  twelve  years  after  they  had  built  the  first 
college  only  to  hand  it  over  to  others  before  entering  it,  were 
Dr.  Wilson  and  his  colleagues  able  to  take  possession  of  the 
present  college  buildings,  erected  to  accommodate  eight  hun- 
dred students  and  pupils,  at  a  cost  of  £6800.  But  the  joy 
of  the  year  1855  was  sadly  dimmed  by  the  sudden  removal 
by  cholera,  on  the  26th  July,  of  Eobert  Nesbit,  a  few 
months  after  his  union  to  a  lady  who  has  ever  since  given  her 
life  to  female  education.  The  most  perfect  speaker  of  Mara- 
thee, so  that  even  Brahmans  could  not  detect  a  foreign  accent, 
with  an  uprightness  of  judgment  which  the  natives  regarded 
as  that  of  a  god,  and  with  a  loving  fascination  which  drew 
all  of  every  sect  and  class  to  his  feet,  Eobert  Nesbit,  in  a  few 
hours  after  he  closed  his  last  class  at  the  college,  was  re- 
moved by  death.  The  Eev.  Adam  White,  who  was  in  after 
years  to  meet  a  like  fate  in  the  same  sort  of  self-sacrifice, 
and  then  Mr.  W.  Gardner,  soon  arrived  from  Scotland  to 
take  his  place.  But  who  could  restore  the  unique  indivi- 
duality and  the  experience  which,  from  St.  Andrews  University, 
and  youthful  intercourse  with  John  Wilson  on  the  border 


458  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1856. 

hills,  grew  into  ripeness  in  the  southern  Konkan,  at  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  and  amid  the  upheaving  of  Bombay  for  nigh 
thirty  years  ? 

The  East  India  Company's  Government,  as  well  as  purely 
English  judges  like  Sir  Erskine  Perry,  were  to  make  another 
advance  in  the  understanding  and  practice  of  toleration.  Sir 
Erskine  had  in  the  last  "habeas  corpus"  case  decided  that 
fourteen  was  the  age  of  discretion  in  the  case  of  a  woman, 
while  Shripat  Sheshadri  had  been  sent  back  to  Brahmanism 
against  his  will  because  he  was  not  sixteen.  The  Company's 
Government  in  every  province  of  India  had  steadily  de- 
christianised  the  English  professors,  forbidding  them,  as  well 
as  native  teachers,  to  explain  passages  in  English  literature 
referring  to  Christianity.  Thus,  it  was  thought,  the  leaven  of 
Christianity  would  be  effectually  kept  out  of  the  State  colleges 
and  schools,  while  there  was  no  official  recognition  by  grants 
in  aid  of  even  the  secular  education  in  the  missionary  and 
independent  colleges,  although  it  was  to  men  like  Wilson 
and  Duff  that,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Company  owed  its  educa- 
tional stimulus,  example,  and  systems. 

In  1854  Lord  Elphinstone  had  become  Governor  of  Bombay 
after  a  successful  experience  of  educational  reform  in  Madras. 
It  was  doubtless  due  to  his  personal  influence  that  the 
Bombay  Government  in  1856  decided  that  its  teachers  did 
not  violate  duty  when  they  gave  simple  explanations  of 
references  in  English  text-books  to  Christianity.  Four  Parsee 
students  of  the  Elphinstone  College,  in  spite  of  the  prison 
bars,  which  could  not  shut  out  the  light,  astounded  Dr.  Wilson 
and  Mr.  White  by  addressing  a  letter  to  them  which  thus 
began : — 

"  We  are  fully  convinced  by  the  grace  of  God,  that  Parseeism  is  a 
false  religion  ;  and  it  consists  of  VAGUE  and  EXTRAVAGANT  principles. 
It  is  the  INVENTION  of  man  ;  not  the  REVELATION  of  God.  We  have 
found  out,  after  inquiring  nearly  two  or  three  years  after  the  TRUE 


1856.]          CATECHUMENS  FROM  GOVERNMENT  COLLEGES.  459 

RELIGION,  that  every  comfort,  joy,  hope,  success,  and  every  good  thing 
in  this  world  as  well  as  in  the  world  to  come,  are  concentrated  in  the 
Lord  Jesus.  We  have  now  the  greatest  pleasure  to  inform  you  that,  as 
we  are  fully  convinced  of  the  TRUTH  of  CHRISTIANITY,  we  wish  to  be 
baptized,  and  to  be  admitted  into  the  visible  Church  of  Christ.  .  . 
Nothing  has  led  us  to  join  the  Christian  Church  but  the  pure  hope  and 
desire  of  the  salvation  of  our  souls." 

Some  days  after,  the  youths,  all  married,  appeared  at  the 
mission-house,  and  a  legal  agent  duly  noted  the  circum- 
stances and  their  ages — from  seventeen  years  and  eight  months 
to  nineteen  years  and  nine  months.  A  rush  of  Parsees  was 
made  to  the  spot.  For  three  days  the  families  of  the  young 
men,  who  had  free  access  to  them,  plied  them  with  the  argu- 
ments of  the  devout  Zoroastrian,  the  sober  deist,  and  the 
arrogant  scoffer,  in  vain.  At  last  the  representation  that 
their  mothers  were  dying,  and  the  express  pledge  that  they 
should  have  religious  liberty  at  their  homes  and  be  allowed 
to  attend  the  mission  for  instruction,  prevailed  at  first  with 
Darasha,  and  a  day  after  with  Bhicajee  and  Nussurwanjee. 
Bairamjee  Kersasjee  alone  remained  faithful,  and  was  in  due 
time  baptized,  but  long  required  the  protection  of  the  law  on 
his  way  to  and  from  the  college.  The  Hindoos  and  Muhamma- 
dans  admitted  the  right  of  young  men  of  that  age  to  please 
themselves.  The  Parsees  began  to  denounce  the  Govern- 
ment college  in  this  case,  as  their  fathers  had  attacked  the 
officiating  Governor  in  that  of  Dhunjeebhoy.  They  vilified, 
especially,  one  of  their  own  tribe  as  a  Christianiser,  Professor 
Ardaseer  Framjee.  A  formal  inquiry  by  Government  resulted 
in  justifying  him,  and  in  the  concession  of  liberty  to  the  educa- 
tional service  so  far  as  to  explain  Milton,  for  instance,  to  the 
pupils,  hitherto  religiously  doubtful,  or  passages  of  Shak- 
spere !  The  result  was  seen  in  the  next  baptisms,  those  of 
another  Parsee  student  of  the  Elphinstone  College,  Shapoorjee 
Eduljee,  and  a  Muhammadan  class-fellow,  Syud  Hussan 
Medinyeh.  About  the  same  time  a  Sikh,  from  the  Punjab, 


460  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1856. 

and  a  Muhammadan  moonshee,  were  admitted  to  the  Church. 
Syud  Hussan's  family  concealed  his  conversion  from  their 
co-religionists  as  long  as  they  could,  but  then  openly  set 
their  ablest  Moulvies  to  argue  with  him. 

All  through  this  period  Dr.  Wilson  carried  on  his  trans- 
lation work,  aided  by  his  scholarly  converts.  He,  Dhun- 
jeebhoy,  and  Hormasdjee,  brought  out  a  revision  of  the  Messrs. 
Fyvie's  translation  of  the  Goojaratee  New  Testament.  "  It 
contains,"  he  wrote,  "  such  improvements  as  the  progress  of 
Oriental  translation,  and  the  application  to  it,  for  the  first 
time  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  of  competent  native  Indian 
Christian  criticism,  have  enabled  us  to  effect."  As  his 
contribution  to  the  public  collection  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  Dr.  Wilson  sent  a  MS.  copy  of  the 
Four  Gospels  in  Arabic,  "  evidently  prepared  for  the  use  of 
the  Eastern  Churches.  This  valuable  document  I  procured 
in  rather  remarkable  circumstances.  Some  time  ago  I  observed 
it  in  the  library  of  one  of  the  principal  fire  temples  of  Bombay, 
and  on  my  offering  ten  pounds  for  it,  the  priests  allowed  me 
to  have  it  on  condition  of  my  permitting  them  to  make  and 
keep  a  copy  of  it — a  proposal  on  their  part  in  which  I  imme- 
diately concurred." 

To  Miss  Douglas,  who  had  sent  him  the  Life  of  Judson 
and  Stier's  Eeden  Jesu,  he  replied — "  I  am  greatly  obliged  to 
you  for  the  Life  of  Judson,  which  I  have  found  most  interest- 
ing in  the  illustration  of  his  high  Christian  character  and 
noble  endeavours  for  the  propagation  of  the  truth.  I  rather 
wonder  at  the  rash  admissions  into  the  Christian  Church  by 
the  Baptist  brethren  at  Burma.  This  greatly  strikes  the 
attention  of  a  Presbyterian  missionary,  who  knows  the  ignor- 
ance of  the  Eastern  mind,  and  its  proneness  in  certain  circum- 
stances to  act  from  impetus.  Though  the  apostles  sometimes 
baptized  on  sudden  professions  their  disciples  were  tested  by 
providence  in  an  unequivocal  manner." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

LITERARY  ACTIVITY— THE  ROCK-CUT  TEMPLES. 

1848-1862. 

A  Missionary-Scholar's  Wife — The  Rock-Cut  Temples  and  Monasteries — 
Early  attempts  at  an  Archaeological  Survey  of  India— Dr.  Wilson's  two 
Memoirs  on  the  subject — President  of  the  Cave-Temple  Commission — Lord 
Canning's  Minute — Necessity  of  a  Corpus  Inscriptionum — Col.  Meadows 
Taylor  and  Sir  Walter  Elliot — The  Antiquary  on  Elephanta — The  Brahmanical 
Caves — A  Visit  to  Karla  Caves — Correspondence  with  Lassen  and  Westergaard 
— Letter  to  Mr.  Dennistoun  of  Dennistoun — The  first  Railway  Train — The 
Peninsular  and  Oriental  Steamers — The  Beejapore  Arabic  Library — MSS.  and 
a  Tropical  Climate — Report  on  the  Oriental  Examinations  of  Officials — Declines 
to  be  Oriental  Translator  to  Government — "Only  a  Missionary" — Writes 
History  of  Infanticide — New  Edition  of  Marathee  Dictionary — Researches  in- 
to Caste — Most  Popular  Book  on  Ancient  India — Letter  to  Lassen — Letter 
from  Goldstiicker — Correspondence  with  Lord  Elphinstone. 


"  But  stay  !  these  walls — these  ivy-clad  arcades — 
These  mouldering  plinths — these  sad  and  blackened  shafts — 
These  vague  entablatures — this  crumbling  frieze — 
These  shattered  cornices— this  wreck — this  ruin — 
These  stones — alas  !  these  grey  stones — are  they  all — 
All  of  the  famed  and  the  colossal  left 
By  the  corrosive  hours  to  Fate  and  me  ? 

"  '  Not  all ' — the  echoes  answer  me — '  not  all ! 
Prophetic  sounds  and  loud,  arise  for  ever 
From  us,  and  from  all  Ruin,  unto  the  wise, 
As  melody  from  Memnon  to  the  Sun. 
We  rule  the  hearts  of  mightiest  men — we  rule 
With  a  despotic  sway  all  giant  minds. 
We  are  not  impotent — we  pallid  stones. 
Not  all  our  power  is  gone — not  all  our  fame — 
Not  all  the  magic  of  our  high  renown — 
Not  all  the  wonder  that  encircles  us — 
Not  all  the  mysteries  that  in  us  lie — 
Not  all  the  memories  that  hang  upon 
And  cling  around  about  us  as  a  garment, 
Clothing  us  in  a  robe  of  more  than  glory.'  " 

EDGAR  POE  :  The  Colosseum. 

"  Historical  truth  is  not  to  be  found  so  easily  in  India  as  in  other  countries 
of  the  world.  It  is  here  in  a  state  of  comparative  purity  only  in  the  ancient 
monuments  of  the  country.  These  monuments,  which  are  of  an  unequivocal 
character,  have  best  withstood  the  ravages  of  time,  the  great  destroyer  ;  and 
religious  fraud,  repelled  by  their  venerable  antiquity,  or  exhausted  in  the 
attempt  to  entomb  their  magnitude,  or  to  annihilate  their  multitude,  or  to 
efface  their  permanent  records,  has  failed  to  destroy  them  or  to  effect  their 
corruption.  They  have  survived  the  departure  of  their  authors  and  the 
destruction  of  the  religious  systems  to  which  they  belonged  ;  and  they  tell 
their  own  tale  in  spite  of  their  approbation  by  sects  and  parties  which  had 
nothing  to  do  with  their  origin,  and  many  of  which  have  come  into  existence 
subsequently  to  their  execution  and  completion.  They  have  proved  too  solid 
for  the  sledge-hammer  of  the  Mussulman  entirely  to  mutilate  them,  and  too 
incombustible  for  the  fires  of  the  Lusitanian  to  consume  or  rend  them  in 
pieces.  They  still  exist,  though  in  a  decaying  state,  for  comparison  with  the 
ancient  literary  remains  of  India,  confirming  what  little  of  historical  truth  is 
to  be  found  in  these  records,  and  illustrating  their  erroneous  though  sub- 
limated speculations,  and  their  wild  and  unbridled  mythology,  with  all  its 
pei-versions  and  exaggerations.  They  are  the  credentials  of  the  genius,  taste, 
wealth,  and  power  of  ancient  India,  showing  the  natural  capacity  of  its 
peoples. " 

JOHN  WILSON  :  The  Religious  Excavations  of  Western  India. 


1849.]  A  TRUE  MISSIONARY'S  WIFE.  463 


CHAPTEE  XV. 

DR.  and  Mrs.  "Wilson  had,  on  his  return  to  India,  just  com- 
pleted the  reorganisation  of  the  Mission  in  its  college  and 
schools,  and  on  its  female  side  at  the  beginning  of  1848,  when 
both  threw  themselves  into  the  allied  work  of  oriental  research. 
To  a  correspondent  he  wrote  in  May  1849 : — "Mrs.  Wilson 
has  enjoyed  remarkably  good  health  in  India.     She  has  now 
made  great  progress  in  the  Marathee  language.     She  has  a 
wide  field  for  usefulness  here,  as  we  have  upwards  of  five 
hundred  girls  in  our  native  female  schools.     She  is  busy 
translating   a  paper   on  the   Puranas   from   the   French  of 
Burnouf,  which  -appeared  in  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator" 
This  extract  from  one  of  Mrs.  Wilson's  letters,  further  illus- 
trates the  duties  of  a  true  missionary's  wife  : — "  BOMBAY,'  30th 
August  1850. — My  labours  in  the  way  of  teaching  are  increas- 
ing, and  I  find  I  require  to  spend  about  four  hours  each  day 
with  the  girls,  that  is  from  twelve  to  four  o'clock,  besides  pre- 
viously preparing  their  work ;  in  addition  to  which  we  have 
the  morning  Marathee  service  for  reading  and  examination 
of  old  and  young,  about  ten,  and  at  eleven  my  moonshee 
comes  for  an  hour  to  teach  me  Hindostanee.     I  find  it  easier 
than  Marathee,  but  I  must  not  expect  to  get  on  rapidly,  as  I 
have  scarcely  a  moment  for  private  study.     I  have  a  class 
who  are  learning  English,  composed  of  some  of  our  female 
teachers  and  some  of  our  day- scholars.     I  have  also  the  girls 
of  a  superior  class  of  natives,  who  come  to  me  for  instruction 
in  sewing  and  English,  and  we  read  the  Scriptures  in  Marathee, 
and  they  learn  the  gospel  catechism.    They  are  knitting  little 
boots  for  their  baby  brothers,  and  are  much  pleased  with 


464  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1849. 

some  pieces  of  canvas- work  they  have  accomplished,  of  simple 
patterns.  Some  of  the  girls  in  my  school  are  now  very  good 
sewers,  and  can  knit  stockings  nicely." 

To  the  same  correspondent  Dr.  Wilson  announced — "  I 
have  just  drawn  up,  what  I  suppose  will  ere  long  be  printed, 
A  Memoir  on  the  Cave-Temples  and  Monasteries,  and  other 
Buddhist,  Brahmanical,  and  Jaina  Remains  of  Western  India. 
This  document  I  have  prepared  in  connection  with  the 
Asiatic  Society  and  the  Government."  This  introduces  us 
to  what  proved  to  be  intellectually  the  most  fruitful  period 
of  his  career,  from  1848  to  1862.  "  During  my  professional 
journeyings  throughout  this  great  country,"  he  wrote  in  the 
last  published  words  from  his  pen,  "  I  have  often  been 
brought  in  contact  with  its  more  remarkable  antiquarian 
wonders,  which,  in  a  considerable  number  of  instances,  I  have 
been  among  the  first  to  observe  and  describe,  though  some- 
times with  unsatisfied  curiosity  as  well  as  with  qualified  in- 
formation." This  is  a  modest  statement,  not  less  of  what 
he  was  the  first  to  do  than  of  the  service  which  he  rendered 
to  Government  and  the  public  by  collecting  all  the  available 
facts  on  the  subject  in  1848,  and  by  showing  the  way  to  such 
a  scientific  and  complete  survey  as  that  which,  ever  since  the 
mutiny  operations  ceased,  has  been  going  on. 

Such  marvels  as  the  fifty  large  groups  of  rock-cut  temples, 
monasteries,  and  cisterns,  excavated  in  the  "Western  Ghauts 
by  Buddhists,  Brahmans,  and  Jains,  successively,  during  the 
fifteen  centuries  from  Asoka  to  the  inscription  of  Elora  in 
A.D.  1234,  had  excited  the  wonder  and  the  speculations  of 
later  Hindoos,  the  superstitious  Portuguese,  and  the  early 
English  travellers.  The  people  saw  in  them  the  work  of 
their  mythical  heroes,  the  Pandavas,  while  the  Brahmans 
pronounced  the  dhagob,  or  relic- receptacle  of  their  Budd- 
hist foes,  to  be  the  filthy  linga,  and  the  cenobite's  rocky 
chamber  to  be  the  abode  of  the  outcast  Dhed.  The  Portu- 


1849.]          EARLY  RESEARCHES  INTO  THE  CAVE-TEMPLES.          465 

guese  historian  De  Couto  magnified  the  hundred  cells  and 
passages  of  the  hill  of  Kanha  in  Salsette  into  thousands  of 
caverns,  reaching  as  far  as  the  mainland  at  Cambay,  through 
which  a  priest  led  an  expedition  for  seven  days  without 
reaching  the  end!  Faber,  once  thought  learned,  romanced 
over  the  trimurti  of  Elephanta  as  the  cavern  of  Noah,  his 
three  sons  and  allegorical  consort,  reasoning  that  five  heads 
are  equal  to  three  because  two  could  be  imagined.  Mr. 
Henry  Salt,  the  Lichfield  artist  who  accompanied  Lord 
Yalentia  in  his  travels,  and  was  sent  as  an  envoy  to  the  ruler 
of  Abyssinia,  was  the  first  to  describe  the  Salsette  excavations 
fairly  in  1806.  But  it  was  not  till  Erskine,  the  "  philosophic  " 
son-in-law  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  wrote  his  Account  of  the 
Cave-Temple  of  Elephanta  in  1813  that  justice  was  done  to 
the  subject,  although  Mebuhr  had  preceded  him,  and  had 
reproached  the  English  for  neglecting  works  far  greater  than 
the  Pyramids.  The  Danish  traveller  pronounced  the  investi- 
gation of  such  antiquities  an  undertaking  worthy  of  the 
patronage  of  a  prince  or  a  nation.  The  journals  of  his  tours 
show  how  early,  and  how,  almost  year  by  year,  Dr.  Wilson 
devoted  his  little  leisure  to  the  scholarly  study  not  only  of 
the  caves  but  of  the  inscriptions  which  give  them  a  historical 
as  well  as  architectural  value.  Nor  was  he  alone  in  this. 
Commercial  enterprise  had  early  sent  to  Bengal  the  Ayrshire 
youth,  James  Fergusson,  who,  after  a  training  in  the  Edin- 
burgh High  School,  and  ten  years'  experience  of  enterprise 
and  travel  among  the  people  of  India,  published  his  Illustra- 
tions of  the  Rock-Cut  Temples  in  1845,  and  has  ever  since  been 
the  principal  authority  on  this  and  allied  subjects. 

When  in  London,  where  his  knowledge  of  the  character 
of  the  cave  and  other  alphabets  enabled  him  to  decipher 
certain  papers  in  a  concealed  Indian  hand,  which  were 
essential  to  adjusting  a  decision  passed  by  the  Admiralty 
Court  at  the  Cape,  and  which  had  long  lain  uninterpreted, 

2H 


466  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1849. 

Dr.  Wilson  had  pressed  his  old  project  of  a  Corpus  Inscrip- 
tionum  in  connection  with  a  systematic  study  of  the  excava- 
tions. Mr.  Fergusson  was  not  less  zealous,  and  he  was  able 
to  be  more  persistent.  The  result  seems  to  have  been  that 
the  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society  in  1844  moved  the  Court  of 
Directors  to  order  preliminary  arrangements  to  be  made  for 
conducting  antiquarian  researches  in  India,  as  the  phraseology 
went.  In  1847  the  Court  finally  approved  of  the  detailed 
suggestions — "  for  examining,  delineating,  and  recording  some 
of  the  chief  antiquities  " — sent  home  by  Lord  Hardinge,  the 
Governor-General.  In  the  rest  of  India  very  little  was  done 
in  those  days  of  Sikh  wars,  beyond  the  publication  of  some 
papers  by  Majors  Kittoe  and  Cunningham,  and  the  enriching 
of  the  old  India  House  in  Leadenhall  Street  with  some 
antiquities  and  drawings.  But  in  Western  and  Central  India 
Dr.  Wilson  was  ready.  The  Bombay  Government  called  the 
local  Asiatic  Society  to  its  aid.  On  the  15th  April  1848  it 
recommended  that  "  authentic  information  as  to  the  number 
and  situation  of  all  the  monuments  and  cave-temples  of 
antiquity  in  the  territories  should  be  obtained;"  it  sketched  a 
plan  of  operations  and  urged  immediate  action.  What  be- 
came known  as  the  Cave-Temple  Commission  for  the  next 
ten  years  was  accordingly  appointed  by  Government,  con- 
sisting of  Dr.  Wilson,  president;  Dr.  Stevenson;  Mr.  C.  J. 
Erskine,  of  the  Civil  Service ;  Captain  Lynch,  of  the  Indian 
Navy;  Mr.  Harkness,  of  the  Elphinstone  College;  Venaik 
Gungadhur  Shastree ;  and  Dr.  Carter,  secretary  of  the  Society. 
Acting  throughout  with  the  authorities,  and  reporting  also  to 
the  Society,  they  engaged  Mr.  Fallon  as  artist;  Lieutenant 
Brett  to  copy  inscriptions,  and,  at  a  later  period,  Captain 
Briggs  to  take  photographs ;  and  Vishnoo  Shastree,  the  pundit 
of  scholars  like  Mr.  Law  and  Mr.  Wathen,  the  Supreme  Court 
translator,  Mr.  Murphy,  and  Dr.  Wilson  himself,  to  aid  in  the 
translation  of  the  inscriptions.  This  pioneering  work  was 


1849.]      THE  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  OF  INDIA  CREATED.       467 

arrested  by  the  Mutiny,  and  soon  after  a  new  race  of  critics, 
in  ignorance  of  the  past,  anonymously  attacked  the  Commis- 
sion, or  rather  its  native  assistant,  the  Shastree.  In  the  ten 
years  of  its  active  existence  its  whole  expenditure  did  not 
much  exceed  £2350,  represented  by  the  paintings,  measure- 
ments, casts,  clearing  out  of  caves,  transcripts,  and  translations. 
For  thirteen  years  the  Commission,  and  Dr.  Wilson  above  all 
his  colleagues,  gave  the  work  their  gratuitous  and  zealous 
labours;  and  not  only  they,  but  coadjutors  like  Sir  Bartle 
Frere,  Sir  Walter  Elliot  of  Madras,  Colonel  Meadows  Taylor, 
Mr.  Orlebar,  and  Dr.  West,  C.E.  But  to  Dr.  Wilson  alone  is 
it  due  that  the  enlightened  orders  of  Lord  Hardinge  and  the 
Directors  bore  fruit  at  all.  In  truth,  from  the  first,  in  north- 
eastern and  southern,  as  well  as  in  western  India,  a  scholar 
like  the  honorary  president  of  the  Asiatic  Society,  or  an 
architectural  authority  like  Mr.  Fergusson,  should  have  been 
set  apart  for  the  sole  duty,  with  a  staff  of  skilled  assistants, 
instead  of  a  beggarly  expenditure  at  the  rate  of  £200  a  year. 

Hence  it  became  necessary,  the  moment  the  state  of  the 
country  after  1857  allowed  of  action,  to  renew  the  enterprise, 
taught  by  the  experience  of  the  past.  When,  towards  the 
end  of  1861,  engaged  at  Allahabad  in  completing  his  reorgan- 
isation of  the  North- Western  government,  Lord  Canning 
resolved  to  appoint  Colonel  A.  Cunningham  Director  of  the 
Archaeological  Survey  of  India.  From  the  young  Duke  of 
Wellington's  time,  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  the  East 
India  Company  had  liberally  carried  out  trigonometrical  as 
well  as  topographical  and  revenue  surveys  of  the  peninsula. 
On  the  basis  of  this,  now  approaching  completion,  Lord  Dal- 
housie  had  created  a  Geological  Survey  in  1856.  And  Lord 
Canning1  completed  the  good  work  by  thus  rescuing  for  all 
time  the  fast  perishing  memorials  which  form  the  only  history 

1  Minute  by  the  Right  Honourable  the  Governor-General  in  Council  on  the 
Antiquities  of  Upper  India,  dated  22d  January  1862. 


468  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1856. 

of  India  before  the  time  of  our  own  battle  of  Hastings,  out- 
side of  the  vague  hints  of  philology  and  of  a  literature  that 
defies  historical  criticism.  The  Archaeological  Survey  has  since 
been  extended  to  Bombay,1  where  it  is  following  up  the  in- 
vestigations of  Dr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Fergusson  on  a  uniform 
scale,  and  with  the  best  results. 

From  the  voluminous  correspondence  of  the  Cave-Temple 
Commission,  all  dictated  or  superintended  by  the  missionary, 
who  had  a  keener  motive  to  impel  him  than  even  that  of  the 
scholar,  we  shall  give  only  this  official  communication  to 
Mr.  Hart,  Secretary  to  the  Government,  dated  9th  April  1856. 
What  Dr.  Wilson  with  true  foresight  urged  then,  he  had  long 
before  pressed  on  the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society's  consideration, 
and  it  is  only  now  being  achieved  : — 

"  1.  The  Cave-Temple  Commission  have  lately  had  their  attention 
directed  to  the  extreme  desirableness  of  the  publication,  under  the 
auspices  of  Government,  of  facsimiles  or  copies,  with  decipherments  and 
translations,  of  all  the  ancient  cave-temple  inscriptions,  rock  inscriptions, 
pillar  inscriptions,  structural  temple  inscriptions,  and  copperplate 
charter  inscriptions,  etc.,  which  are  to  be  found  within  the  wide  extent 
of  the  British  Empire  in  the  East.  The  publication  of  such  a  Corpus 
Inscriptionum  appears  to  them  to  be  an  object  of  such  importance  in 
an  antiquarian  and  historical  point  of  view — for  it  would  embrace  the 
most  important  documenta  of  Indian  history — that  it  well  merits  the 
combined  attention  of  Government,  of  our  learned  Societies,  and  of 
individual  Orientalists.  The  work  they  conceive  to  be  practicable, 
were  it  duly  allotted  to  each  presidency  and  administration  in  India. 
The  Cave-Temple  Commission  would  be  gratified  if  the  special  atten- 
tion of  the  supreme  and  subordinate  Governments  of  this  country  were 
early  directed  to  it,  and  to  the  devising  of  practical  arrangements  for 
its  execution  in  concurrence  with  the  honourable  the  Court  of  Directors 
in  England. 

1  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  India  Office  does  not  more  freely  circulate 
the  valuable  reports  of  General  Cunningham  and  Mr.  Burgess.  The  Secretary 
of  State  has  shown  an  enlightened  liberality,  worthy  of  the  old  Company,  in 
sanctioning  the  preparation,  at  the  public  expense,  by  Mr.  Fergusson  and  Mr. 
Burgess,  of  an  exhaustive  and  illustrated  volume,  describing  the  whole  religious 
excavations  of  all  India. 


1856.]  THE  CAVE-TEMPLE  COMMISSION.  469 

"  2.  Much,  has  been  done  in  India,  especially  during  the  last  thirty 
years,  to  prepare  the  way  for  such  a  work  as  that  now  mentioned, 
especially  by  the  various  Asiatic  Societies  in  India  and  Europe.  The 
more  remarkable  antiquities  of  the  country  have  to  a  'considerable 
extent  been  discovered  and  explored.  The  key  to  the  characters  in 
which  their  inscriptions  are  written  has  been  found.  Many  of  these 
inscriptions  have  already  been  copied,  deciphered,  and  translated, 
though  not  with  absolute  accuracy,  yet  with  a  tolerable  degree  of 
success.  Extremely  important  results  have  been  obtained  from  their 
investigation  for  the  arrangement  of  Indian  chronology,  and  the 
definite  ascertainment  of  the  great  religious  and  political  changes  which 
have  occurred  in  this  great  country  in  past  ages. 

"3.  In  producing  the  results  now  referred  to,  each  of  the  presi- 
dencies of  India  has  had  its  own  share  of  credit ;  and  much  may  be 
expected  from  any  suitable  and  harmonious  combination  of  their  eiforts 
which  may  be  arranged  and  agreed  upon. 

"  4.  It  seems  very  desirable  that,  till  a  general  plan  of  co-operation 
is  agreed  upon  between  the  presidencies,  the  efforts  of  all  the  parties 
likely  to  be  auxiliary  in  the  case,  should  be  zealously  directed  to  the 
expediting  of  those  measures  which  may  tend  to  bring  about  the  final 
accomplishment  of  the  object  to  be  derived.  Let  the  copying  of 
inscriptions  proceed,  especially  by  photography,  which  has  been  practi- 
cally shown  by  Captain  Briggs  to  be  peculiarly  applicable  to  the  larger 
inscriptions  of  the  Hindus.  Let  the  copies  of  the  inscriptions  which 
have  been  already  made  be  collated  with  the  originals,  especially  in  all 
dubious  cases.  Let  the  more  laborious  work  of  decipherment  and 
translation  receive  adequate  attention;  and  let  decipherments  and 
translations  already  made — and  that  in  some  instances  in  very  dis- 
advantageous circumstances — be  duly  revised  and  perfected. 

"  5.  It  seems  the  more  desirable  that  all  this  should  be  promptly 
done,  that  the  parties  who  have  been  more  immediately  concerned  in 
antiquarian  discovery  in  India,  and  who  may  be  supposed  to  be  not 
the  least  zealous  and  competent  in  the  cause,  are  rapidly  diminishing 
in  numbers,  while  their  learned  European  advisers,  such  as  Professors 
H.  H.  Wilson  and  Colonel  Sykes,  and  their  friends  on  the  Continent, 
are  advancing  in  years." 

Dr.  Wilson's  Memoir  on  the  Cave-Temples  and  Monasteries, 
forming  some  seventy  pages  of  Volume  III.  of  the  Journal 
of  the  Bombay  Asiatic  Society,  was  circulated  by  the  Govern- 
ment to  all  the  district  and  political  officers  in  and  around 


470 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1856. 


the  province,  including  great  States  like  the  Nizam's  country. 
These  were  directed  to  afford  the  Commission  all  the  informa- 
tion and  assistance  in  their  power  in  the  prosecution  of 
researches.  The  result  was  the  publication  by  Dr.  Wilson  of 
a  second  Memoir  in  1852,  recording  the  new  discoveries,  for 
which  Government  had  offered  pecuniary  rewards  also,  and 
embodying  the  results  of  the  Commission's  work  on  the  larger 
caves  like  Elephanta.  The  Memoir  had  set  many  observers 
to  work,  with  results  of  the  most  striking  interest,  such  as 
those  reported  by  Colonel  Meadows  Taylor  from  the  Nizam's 
principality  of  Shorapoor,1  and  by  Sir  Walter  Elliot  from 
Southern  India. 

Henceforth,  year  after  year,  no  new  Governor-General, 
Governor,  or  Member  of  Council,  landed  at  Bombay,  and  no 
traveller  from  Europe  or  America  passed  through  it,  without 
seeking  the  guidance  of  Dr.  Wilson  on  a  visit  to  one  of  the  neigh- 
bouring groups  of  excavations.  In  velvet  skull-cap  and  with 
long  wand,  the  enthusiastic  scholar,  with  the  air  of  an  old 
knight,  would  lead  his  friends  through  the  caves,  pouring  forth 
his  stores  of  knowledge  with  unflagging  courtesy,  and  charming 
all  by  the  rare  combination  of  goodness  and  grace,  historical 
and  oriental  lore,  poetic  quotation  and  scientific  references, 
genial  remark  and  childlike  humour,  till  visitors,  like  the 
accomplished  Lady  Canning,  declared  they  had  never  met 
such  a  man.  Nor  would  he  allow  his  guests — for  he  too 
often  provided  the  luncheon — to  go  unprepared  by  study. 
He  had  written  a  lecture  on  the  subject  for  the  Bombay 
public,  to  whom,  at  the  request  of  the  Mechanics'  Institute, 
he  delivered  it  in  the  Town  Hall.  By  the  year  1864,  when 
the  present  writer  for  the  first  time  visited  Bombay,  the 
manuscript  was  well  worn,  and  he  solicited  permission  to 

1  See  The  Story  of  My  Life,  by  the  late  Colonel  Meadows  Taylor,  1877, 
vol.  ii. ;  and  his  Notices  of  Cromlechs,  Cairns,  and  other  Ancient  Scytho- 
Druidical  Remains,  in  vol.  iv.  of  the  Journal  of  the  Bombay  Asiatic  Society. 


1856.]  A  LEARNED  AND  GENIAL  GUIDE.  471 

publish  it  in  the  Calcutta  Review.  All  were  expected,  and, 
as  a  rule  were  glad,  to  master  the  contents  of  this  popular 
treatise,  of  which  it  was  Dr.  Wilson's  last  literary  work  to  pre- 
pare a  somewhat  enlarged  edition  for  the  use  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales.  We  cannot  give  a  more  correct  impression  of  one  of 
those  memorable  days  than  by  recalling  the  details  of  a  visit, 
in  Dr.  Wilson's  society,  to  the  nearest  and  latest  Brahmanical 
caves  of  Elephanta,  followed  by  an  inspection,  unfortunately 
without  his  personal  assistance,  of  the  richer  Buddhist  caves 
of  Karla. 

"  Standing  on  the  west  of  the  Malabar  Hill,  in  the  garden  of  '  the 
Cliff/  too  rarely  visited  by  the  toiling  missionary  of  Ambrolie  till 
circumstances  made  it  his  last  permanent  residence,  the  spectator,  as  he 
looks  eastward  across  the  breadth  of  the  harbour  to  the  mainland, 
twelve  miles  off,  lets  his  eye  rest  on  a  low  mass  of  basalt  crouching 
almost  midway.  He  would  pass  it  by  as  no  more  worthy  of  notice 
than  the  other  rocks  which  made  up  the  Septanesia  of  the  Greek 
geographers,  were  he  not  told  that  this  is  Elephanta,  once  the  head- 
quarters of  Shivaism  in  the  West.  To  that  island,  when  it  was  con- 
nected with  the  mainland  by  a  mole  like  that  of  old  Tyre,  thousands 
of  devotees  crowded  that  they  might  worship  in  the  lofty  expanse  and 
amid  the  sculptured  pillars  of  its  rock-cut  temples.  Now  the  mole 
has  disappeared,  the  colossal  elephants  which  gave  the  spot  its  name 
are  gone,  and  Messrs.  Nicol  and  Co.  are  busy  transporting  jnuch  of  its 
mass  to  the  sedgy  flats  which  the  Elphinstone  Land  Company  are 
transforming  into  priceless  sites  for  wharves,  warehouses,  and  docks, 
at  the  busiest  part  of  busy  Bombay.  They  courteously  place  one  of 
their  steamers  at  our  disposal,  and,  accompanied  by  a  party  of  engineers 
and  sportsmen,  we  land  below  the  rock-mansions  which  scholars  from 
Erskine  to  Wilson,  and  their  proximity  to  Bombay,  have  made  familiar 
to  every  visitor.  Too  familiar,  we  may  say;  for  until  the  present 
English  guardian  of  the  shrines  was  appointed,  there  were  only  too 
many  sailors  who,  in  their  frolics,  had  chipped  off  colossal  noses,  and 
carried  home  to  wife  or  sweetheart  the  monstrous  ears  and  ear-rings  of 
stone,  the  want  of  which  now  so  sadly  disfigures  the  bashful  Parvatee 
in  her  bridal  attire. 

"  We  stand  before  the  great  temple,  which  covers  almost  a  square 
of  133  feet,  and  leads  on  either  side  to  two  smaller  sacella,  that  recede 
from  it  so  as  to  leave  the  sides  of  the  main  excavation  open  to  inspec- 


472  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1856. 

tion.  At  Karla  the  first  impression  of  awe,  caused  by  the  solemn  gloom, 
soon  changes  into  intense  satisfaction  with  the  perfection  of  the  design 
and  the  chasteness  of  the  ornamentation.  Here  the  gloom  is  not  so  great, 
though  the  vistas  are  grander  ;  but  the  regularity  of  the  pillars  which 
run  in  parallel  lines  and  at  right  angles  with  each  other,  and  the  com- 
parative coarseness  of  the  whole  workmanship,  at  once  convince  us  that 
we  are  inspecting  work  of  a  much  later  age  than  Asoka's,  and  under- 
taken by  imitators  who  sought  to  produce  by  magnitude  of  design 
what  they  were  incompetent  to  effect  by  artistic  execution.  Our  dis- 
appointment is  increased  when  we  proceed,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
great  living  scholar  who  is  so  familiar  with  every  figure,  to  study  the 
gigantic  bas  reliefs  which  stare  passively  from  the  rocky  walls  around. 
Fronting  us  is  the  great  Trimoorti,  or  three-headed  bust,  representing, 
from  the  waist  to  a  height  of  eighteen  feet,  the  later  deities,  Shiva, 
Vishnoo,  and  Brahma,  yet  so  carved  as  to  make  the  whole  a  tribute  to 
the  glory  of  Shiva  alone.  The  Hindoos  of  later  days,  who  look  to 
European  teachers  to  read  the  riddle  of  such  rocks,  were  wont  to 
declare  that  the  figure  of  Buddha,  of  which  this  is  a  copy,  was  only 
the  Brahmanical  artificer  Vishwakarma  holding  the  finger  which  he 
had  cut  in  his  workshop.  As  we  look  at  the  meaningless  face  of 
Brahma,  and  at  the  feline  moustache  and  slobbering  lips  by  which  the 
artist  would  make  Shiva  look  fierce,  we  feel  an  emotion  of  disgust,  very 
different  from  that  which  is  excited  by  the  aspect  of  the  Sphinx  in  the 
Memphian  desert,  as  it  '  gazes  right  on  with  calm  eternal  eyes.'  The 
whole  Trimoorti  is  decorated  like  a  sovereign,  with  head  and  neck 
ornaments,  which  were  fine  specimens  of  carving  before  some  Vandal 
mutilated  them. 

"  A  tableau  on  the  right,  on  an  equally  colossal  scale,  pictures 
Shiva  in  his  own  character,  with  his  wife  Parvatee,  standing  upright, 
and  surrounded  not  only  by  attendants  and  ascetics  but  by  such  deities 
as  the  four-faced  Brahma  on  his  waggon  of  geese,  Indra  upon  his  ele- 
phant, and  Vishnoo  on  the  lord  of  eagles,  who  are  thus  represented  as 
his  subordinates.  To  the  left  Shiva  and  his  wife  appear  in  a  half  male 
and  half  female  form,  with  a  similar  entourage,  and  with  his  bull,  the 
wild  forest  gava,  which  in  Vedic  times  was  eaten.  A  fourth  bas  relief 
shows  Shiva  with  his  bashful  bride  pushed  forward  by  a  ministering 
attendant,  while  before  them  kneels  a  priest  with  a  vessel  containing 
the  bridal  oil.  In  another  part  is  a  fifth,  representing  the  two  in  the 
enjoyment  of  connubial  felicity  in  their  kailas  or  heaven,  upheld  by 
Ravan,  the  demon  king  of  Ceylon.  In  a  sixth  group  we  have  Shiva 
as  Bhairava,  terrible  in  form  and  fierce  in  aspect,  with  a  garland  of 


1856.]  THE  EXCAVATIONS  OF  ELEPHANTA.  473 

human  skulls  around  his  neck,  and  performing  a  human  sacrifice.  We 
pause  before  this  in  horror  and  sadness,  as  we  think  of  the  age  which 
could  revel  in  the  beliefs  that  colossal  figure  embodies.  In  one  hand 
he  holds  a  child  upraised,  a  second  brandishes  a  naked  sword,  a  third 
has  a  bell  to  give  warning  of  the  fatal  act,  a  fourth  holds  a  vessel  to 
receive  the  blood,  while  a  fifth  extends  a  screen  ready  to  be  dropped 
over  the  scene  when  the  deed  is  done.  And  this  is  still  the  most 
popular  of  the  Hindoo  idols — this  typifies  the  essence  of  Hindooism, 
and  above  it  all  are  cut  the  mystic  letters  AUM  or  OM.  We  need  not 
go  over  the  other  groups — in  one  the  god  and  his  wife  are  quarrelling, 
in  others  he  appears  as  an  ascetic  surrounded  by  ascetics,  in  another  is 
his  elephant-headed,  large-bellied  son,  Gunputi,  and  a  procession  of 
women  carrying  infants.  We  do  not  wonder  at  the  Portuguese  fathers 
who,  when  they  entered  this  place,  thought  it  to  be  an  abode  of  devils 
transformed  into  stone  as  a  punishment  for  their  horrible  wickedness, 
and,  with  iconoclastic  folly,  proceeded  to  deface  the  carvings. 

"  What  an  example  of  the  gradual  deterioration  of  Hindooism,  as 
of  all  merely  human  religious  systems,  are  these  Elephanta  excavations. 
The  abominable,  though  still  favourite  personage,  to  whose  deeds  they 
are  consecrated,  is  a  being  unknown  even  so  late  as  the  days  of  Munoo. 
Shiva  is,  in  meaning,  the  productive  one;  but  functions  have  been 
ascribed  to  him  by  sensual  worshippers  which  have  gradually  led  him 
to  monopolise  the  whole  pantheon.  One  of  his  names  denotes  that  he 
is  lord  of  all  beasts,  and  then  he  has  a  trident  and  a  bull.  Another 
shows  that  he  is  the  lord  of  prosperity  ;  and  as  to  the  peasant  all  pro- 
sperity comes  from  the  rivers  which  rise  in  ice-clad  hills,  he  is  the  lord 
of  mountains,  and  his  wife  is  Parvatee,  or  mountain-born,  and  Doorga, 
or  mountain-daughter.  Dwelling  in  snows  he  must  be  an  ascetic,  and 
must  preside  over  storms,  so  that  he  has  stolen  the  Vedic  name  of 
Rudra.  It  follows  that  he  is  the  lord  of  destruction  and  of  great 
power  ;  whence  his  name,  Mahableshwar.  At  a  very  recent  date  his 
vile  devotees  borrowed  for  him,  from  the  devil-worshipping  aborigines, 
the  symbol  of  the  Linga.  In  a  frenzy  of  adoration  his  worshippers 
call  him — as  may  be  heard  every  morning  at  sunrise  from  Gungootree 
to  Saugur  all  down  the  Ganges — Mahadeva,  the  great  god,  the  sun-god. 
Dissatisfied  with  the  eclectic  arrangement  of  the  Puranas,  which 
assigned  to  Brahma  the  function  of  the  prayer-hearer,  to  Vishnoo  that 
of  the  preserver,  and  to  Shiva  that  of  the  destroyer,  the  devotees  of 
the  last  claimed  for  him  all  three,  and  have  embodied  their  belief  in 
the  colossal  Trimoorti  of  Elephanta. 

"  What  was  the  age  which  grovelled  before  so  filthy  a  Belial  as 


474  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  C1856- 

this  Shiva,  and  tunnelled  for  him  such  splendid  temples  as  those  of 
Elephanta,  Salsette,  and  the  Kailas  of  Elora  ?  Dr  Wilson  agrees  with 
Mr.  Fergusson  that  it  was  that  of  the  Chola  Rajas,  or  the  first  half  of  the 
ninth  century  after  Christ.  The  Lingaits,  who  are  pictured  on  the 
rocks,  did  not,  as  a  sect,  appear  in  South  India  till  that  time,  and  the 
Chola  Rajas  were  their  patrons,  wealthy  and  powerful  enough  to 
undertake  such  excavations.  The  Brahmanical  rock-mansions  are  the 
most  appropriate  places  for  the  study  of  that  marvellous  production  of 
Southey's,  the  Curse  of  Kehama.  The  poet's  imagination,  feeding 
upon  much  reading  and  considerable  erudition,  has  reproduced  in  that 
work  the  magnificent  horrors  of  Hindooism  with  a  reality  which  the 
visitor  to  the  Caves  of  Elephanta,  alike  with  the  spectator  of  the  cruel 
worship  of  Jugganath,  can  fully  understand."1 

Very  different  are  the  excavations  at  Karla,  on  the  crest 
of  the  Western  Ghauts,  a  few  miles  from  Khandalla,  near  the 
head  of  the  Bhore  Ghaut,  where  Dr.  Wilson  heard  Sir  John 
Malcolm  boast  that  he  had  made  the  first  road,  and  saw  not  very 
many  years  after  the  magnificent  works  by  which  the  present 
railway  has  ascended  the  heights  on  its  way  to  Madras. 
Standing  there,  looking  down  on  rich  Bombay  and 
round  on  the  plains  which  stretch  away  to  the  Dekhan  till 
they  dip  into  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  the  traveller,  as  he  recalls 
the  glories  of  Asoka's  reign,  feels  that  in  these  two  thousand 
years  Brahmanism  and  Muhammadanism  have  together  denied 
to  Southern  Asia  the  splendour  and  the  happiness  which 
Buddhism  then  vainly  promised,  and  Christianity  now  renders 
possible.  From  Khandalla  a  ride  of  ten  miles  takes  the 
visitor  to  the  foot  of  the  amygdaloidal  trap  cliff  of  Karla, 
which  the  early  Buddhists  selected  for  their  rock-mansions, 
with  a  regard  to  the  picturesque  and  the  comfortable  worthy 
of  their  Cistercian  imitators  in  this  country. 

"  The  ascent  is  easy,  and  the  wretched  Brahmanical  guides,  who  are 
on  the  look-out  for  visitors,  soon  bring  the  stranger  face  to  face  with 
the  most  complete  and  architecturally  most  beautiful  of  the  excavations 
in  India,  which  are  surpassed  in  antiquity  only  by  the  caves  of  Elora. 

1  The  Friend  of  India,  22d  June  1865. 


1856.]  THE  BUDDHIST  CAVES  OF  KARLA.  475 

In  the  far  distance  may  be  seen  the  smoke  of  the  engines  which  are 
toiling  up  the  Bhore  Ghaut,  a  work  pronounced  by  the  natives  them- 
selves to  be  superior  in  difficulty  and  ingenuity,  as  well  as  utility,  to 
the  structures  which  they  ascribe  to  the  agency  of  the  mythical  Pan- 
davas.  The  missionary  has  no  longer  any  difficulty  in  convincing  the 
ignorant  Hindoos  of  the  human  origin  of  the  Buddhist  caves,  unless 
indeed  those  of  them  who  still  consider  railway  engineers  to  be  gods 
come  down  in  the  likeness  of  men. 

"  The  visitor  sees  before  him  in  the  face  of  the  hard  rock  what  seems 
to  be  the  approach  to  a  gloomy  cathedral,  and  when  he  enters  he  finds 
a  vaulted  building  with  pillared  aisles,  resembling,  as  Mr.  Fergusson 
says,  in  arrangement  and  dimensions  the  choir  of  Norwich  Cathedral. 
This  tunnelled  choir  is  the  finest  specimen  extant  of  a  Buddhist  chaitya 
or  temple.  The  vault  is  of  horse-shoe  shape,  and  there,  in  a  wonderful 
state  of  preservation,  are  the  wooden  rafters  which  in  Asoka's  days  must 
have  lined  the  whole.  In  front  of  the  temple  is  a  wall-screen  supporting 
a  gallery,  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  devoted  to  musicians.  Eunning 
up  from  this  on  either  side  is  a  colonnade,  the  pillars  having  sculptured 
capitals  ;  and  at  the  end,  where  in  a  Christian  church  the  altar  would 
be  placed,  is  the  usual  sculptured  mass  of  rock  called  Dhagob,  or  recep- 
tacle of  the  relics  of  Buddha.  Milton's  '  dim,  religious  light '  is  excelled 
in  effect  by  the  awful  gloom  of  this  temple.  The  sculptures  generally 
represent  the  aboriginal  tribes  doing  obeisance  to  Buddha.  We  pass 
into  the  porch  and  find  two  recesses  bounded  by  the  wall-screen,  and 
then  outside  the  famous  lion  pillar,  a  monolith  of  exquisite  architectural 
proportions,  its  capital  supporting  four  figures  of  lions.  This  com- 
memorative stambha  seems  to  have  been  accompanied  by  another,  the 
remains  of  which  can  be  seen.  We  pass  along  the  face  of  the  rock 
for  a  slight  distance  to  the  mhara,  or  monastery,  the  second  part  of 
these  vast  groups  of  excavations.  There,  in  cells  leading  off  from  great 
halls  of  two  or  three  storeys,  lived  the  Bikshus  or  cenobite  mendicant 
monks,  and  not  far  from  them  are  the  detached  cells  reserved  for  the 
hermits.  Besides  the  temple  and  the  monastic  cells  we  have  the  third 
provision  of  a  shala  or  hall,  in  which  the  chapter  must  have  met,  and 
another  reserved  for  the  accommodation  of  pilgrims  ;  while  the  estab- 
lishment is  completed  by  annasatras,  or  hospices,  from  which  food  was 
distributed  to  travellers.  Not  the  least  wonderful  are  the  pondhis  or 
cisterns,  ever  fresh  reservoirs  of  cool  water,  in  some  cases  of  great 
depth.  The  water  we  found  most  refreshing.  These  vast  structures 
are  all  cut  in  the  living  rock,  and  must  have  occupied  an  amount  of 
time  and  labour  not  less  than  that  required  for  the  erection  of  the 


476  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1850. 

pyramids.  The  finest  cathedrals  of  Europe,  from  the  Glasgow  crypt 
and  York  Minster  to  St.  Peter's  and  St.  Paul's  without  the  walls  of 
Rome,  do  not  excite  such  emotions  as  the  Karla  temple,  lighted  up  only 
from  the  great  arch  at  the  doorway,  by  rays  which  fall  directly  on  the 
dhagob,  and  with  pillared  aisles  so  arranged  that  the  spectator  imagines 
great  vistas  behind  them  dying  away  in  the  solemn  gloom.  Yet 
this  glorious  structure  was  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  a  man  who 
taught  doctrines  which  fell  little  short  of  atheism  and  materialism. 

"  When  were  the  splendid  rock-mansions  of  Karla  excavated  ?  Dr. 
Wilson  says  before  the  close  of  the  third  century  B.C.,  and  Professor 
Lassen  agrees  with  him.  Sakhya  Muni,  whose  protest  against  the 
Brahmanical  priestcraft  which  followed  the  close  of  the  simpler  Vedic 
age  led  to  the  foundation  of  Buddhism,  died  B.C.  543.  In  B.C.  263 
Asoka  despatched  missionaries  to  propagate  the  faith  in  all  the  provinces 
from  Kandahar  to  Ceylon.  Of  the  disciple  sent  to  the  Maratha 
country  it  is  said  in  the  Mahawanso  that  he  ordained  thirteen  thousand 
priests,  and  that  eighty-four  thousand  persons  attained  the  sanctification 
of  the  Marga  or  way.  At  this  time  the  excavations  were  made, 
beginning  with  the  most  southerly  at  Elora.  Then  followed  the 
Karla  caves,  which  bear  an  inscription,  thus  translated  by  Dr.  Wilson — 
1  By  the  victorious  and  most  exalted  sovereign  this  rock-mansion  has 
been  established,  the  most  excellent  in  Jambudwipa '  (the  generic  name 
of  India).  The  mention  of  a  Yavan  or  Greek  as  having  presented  a 
pillar  in  the  interior  of  the  Karla  caves,  leads  to  the  suspicion  that 
Greeks  had  to  do  with  their  construction,  just  as  Italians  are  believed 
to  have  aided  in  the  elaboration  of  that  triumph  of  modern  architecture, 
the  Taj  Mahal.  The  earliest  of  the  Buddhist  rock-mansions  were  cut 
in  the  middle  of  the  third  century  before  Christ.  The  latest  imitations 
of  them  are  the  Jain  excavations,  devoted  to  Parisnath,  at  Elora,  which 
were  made  A.D.  1234." 

When  forwarding  a  copy  of  his  Memoir  to  Professor  Las- 
sen, through  Professor  H.  H.  Wilson,  at  Oxford,  Dr.  Wilson 
wrote  on  the  3d  December  1850  : — 

"  You  will  be  glad  to  see  that  since  my  return  to  India  several 
most  important  antiquities,  long  overlooked,  have  been  brought  to 
light.  I  should  like  to  know  how  far  you  think  I  have  succeeded  in 
answering  Professor  H.-H.  Wilson's  objections  to  the  Buddhist  charac- 
ter of  the  oldest  of  the  rock-inscriptions  of  Girnar,  and  what  you  think 
of  my  conjecture  that  the  Devanam  piya  piyadadna  of  these  inscriptions 


1851.]  CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  LASSEN.  477 

may  be  the  Devananpiatisso  of  the  Mahawanso.  Any  hints  you  may 
be  disposed  to  give  me  about  the  prosecution  of  our  further  researches 
will  be  very  acceptable.  Along  with  the  copy  of  my  little  Memoir,  I 
have  addressed  one  to  your  care  for  the  Society  of  German  Orientalists. 
I  was  much  obliged  to  you  for  proposing  me  as  a  corresponding  mem- 
ber of  that  most  promising  institution ;  and  I  beg  you  to  thank  the 
Society  in  my  behalf  for  the  honour  which  they  have  conferred  upon 
me.  The  diploma  of  the  Society — to  which,  as  having  been  sent  to 
me,  reference  is  made  by  Professor  Kodiger,  in  a  letter  addressed  by 
him  to  my  friend  Mr.  Isenberg — has  not  reached  me;  but  I  have 
received  some  numbers  of  the  Society's  Journal,  which  I  highly  value, 
and  the  continuation  of  which  I  shall  be  delighted  to  receive,  making 
such  an  acknowledgment  of  them  as  the  literary  resources  of  Bombay 
may  put  in  my  power. 

"  I  am  glad  to  notice  in  the  last  number  of  your  own  Journal  a 
translation  of  Mr.  Walter  Elliot's  paper  on  the  language  of  the  Gonds. 
I  take  this  tribe  to  be  the  Kandali  or  Gondale  of  Ptolemy.1  The 
Parvari  of  the  same  author  are  undoubtedly  the  Mahars  of  our  Marathee 
country,  who  constantly  distinguish  themselves  by  this  appellation, 
which  may  have  some  connection  with  the  Eajpoot  Pramdrs,  who,  from 
the  well-known  legend  of  the  Agnikulas,  do  not  appear  to  have  been  of 
the  Aryan  race.  If  the  Bolingce  or  Biolinyce  of  Ptolemy  are  not  mistakes 
for  Teiling  or  Tenlingi,  they  may  be  intended  to  represent  the  Bheels. 
I  am  finding  more  and  more  remains  of  the  Turanian  language  even 
among  the  mountain  and  forest  tribes  north  of  the  Krishna,  though 
they  are  more  visible  in  particular  vocables  than  grammatical  forms. 
Of  the  later  Scythian  immigrations  into  India,  I  see  indications  in  the 
SaJchdit  (Scythian)  Kathis,  from  whom  the  province  of  Kdthidwdr 
(the  peninsula  of  Goojarat)  derives  its  name.  Ptolemy  gives  to  this 
province  the  name  of  Indo-Scythia.  I  intend  to  revisit  it  next  month, 
when  I  hope  to  be  able  to  explore  more  fully  than  I  have  yet  done  the 
neighbourhood  of  Girnar,  Walabhi,  etc.  Offer  my  kind  regards  to  Mr. 
Konig.  I  have  got  a  few  Sanscrit  pamphlets  to  send  to  him  by  the 
first  opportunity." 

"  BONN,  22d  April  1851. — MY  DEAR  SIR. — I  have  had  the  plea- 
sure of  receiving  your  kind  letter  of  the  3d  December  last,  and  the 
copy  of  your  Memoir  on  the  cave-temples  and  monasteries,  and  other 
ancient  remains  of  the  Buddhist,  Brahmanical,  and  Jaina  religions  of 


1  Query:   Are  these  the  originals  of  the  Chandals  of  the   Brahmanical 
books  ?-J.W. 


478 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1851. 


Western  India,  which  you  had  the  goodness  to  present  me  with.  I 
have  read  it  with  great  profit,  it  being  the  first  complete  account  of 
these  remains.  I  am  glad  to  learn  that  several  important  monuments 
of  this  kind,  hitherto  overlooked,  have  lately  been  discovered,  and  that 
the  Indian  Government  has  taken  the  necessary  steps  for  their  preser- 
vation and  description  before  it  would  be  too  late.  Your  Memoir  pos- 
sesses an  additional  value  for  me  because  I  have  not  been  able  to  pro- 
cure the  historical  researches  of  Thomas  Bird,  Esq.,  in  which  an 
account  is  given  of  some  of  the  cave-temples.  I  agree  with  you  in 
identifying  the  king  Devanam  piya  piyadasina  of  the  inscription  at  Girnar 
and  in  other  places  with  AsoJca.  Besides  the  testimony  of  the  Maha- 
wanso,  I  adduce  as  a  proof  of  their  identity  the  repetition  of  that  title  by 
his  successor  Dajaratha,  with  the  difference  that  he  usually  adds  his  own 
name  to  distinguish  himself  from  his  predecessor.  Another  instance  of 
a  title  being  used  instead  of  a  proper  name  by  the  Buddhists  is  the  name 
Dhannanvardhana,  given  to  Asoka's  son  Kunata  II.,  270.  As  Asoka's 
authorship  of  the  inscription  found  at  Bhatra,  can  hardly  be  doubted,  it 
may  be  presumed  that  also  the  others  are  to  be  ascribed  to  him.  The 
chronological  difficulty  that  Maya,  who  died  256  B.C.,  is  mentioned  in 
an  inscription  dated  246, 1  have  proposed  to  obviate  by  the  supposition 
that  Asoka,  shortly  after  his  accession,  had  sent  ambassadors  to  the 
Greek  kings,  and  therefore  recorded  their  names  in  his  inscriptions. — 
Ind.  Ant,  ii.,  242.  It  is  true  that  no  allusions  to  any  of  the  names  of 
Buddha  occur  in  them,  stupas  and  viharas  are  however  spoken  of  in 
the  inscriptions  of  Dhauli,  and  the  Bo  tree  appears  with  its  sacred  char- 
acter in  them. — Ind.  Ant.  ii.,  256.  I  may  add  that  the  prominent  place 
which  dhann  occupies  in  the  mind  of  the  author  of  the  inscriptions, 
speaks  for  his  having  been  a  Buddhist,  and  that  Professor  Wilson's 
hypothesis,  that  the  shadow  of  a  name  should  have  been  made  use  of 
in  order  to  give  authority  to  the  promulgation,  appears  to  me  highly 
improbable. 

"For  the  communication  of  the  Nos.  77  and  95-97  of  the 
Overland  Summary  of  the  Christian  Spectator,  I  am  particularly 
grateful,  having  found  in  them  the  translation  of  a  part  of 
my  Indian  Antiquities,  and  your  interesting  journal  of  your  tour 
in  Sindh.  I  should  be  highly  delighted  to  receive  the  continuation 
of  the  first.  I  have,  as  you  desired,  presented  your  thanks  to  the 
Society  of  German  Orientalists,  and  forwarded  the  copy  of  your 
Memoir  to  its  secretary.  I  am  sorry  to  learn  from  your  letter  that 
your  diploma  had  not  yet  arrived.  I  have  forwarded  it  through 
the  same  bookseller  who  sends  the  numbers  of  the  Zeitschrift  of  that 


1851.]  CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  LASSEN.  479 

Society ;  the  last  was  the  first  of  the  fifth  volume.  You  would  oblige 
me  much  by  letting  me  know  whether  you  have  received  the  diploma 
and  all  the  numbers  of  the  Journal  formerly  sent  out,  that  I  may  in- 
quire into  the  matter,  and  take  qare  that  in  future  no  irregularity  of 
that  kind  takes  place. 

"  I  have,  in  several  passages  of  my  work,  i.  pp.  20  and  101,  stated  my 
opinion  that  names  of  the  original  tribes  were  applied  to  the  mixed 
castes  from  some  prominent  peculiarity  of  the  former,  and  adduced  the 
Ghandali  as  an  instance,  because  they  are  mentioned  by  Ptolemy 
by  the  same  name,  Kandali.  The  Gonds  seem  to  me  to  have  no  con- 
nection with  them.  Ptolemy's  Parvari  are  very  likely  the  same  as  the 
Parvari,  or  Mahars.  I  doubt  whether  the  Bolinga  may  be  the  originals 
of  the  Telinga,  because  Bhutirya  is  found  as  the  name  of  a  country, 
though  in  a  different  situation.  The  originals  of  the  Bheels  are  certainly 
the  Phyllotse  of  Ptolemy.  I  think  you  are  right  in  seeing  indications 
of  the  Scythic  immigration  in  Sakhait  Khathi  of  the  peninsula  of  Goo- 
jarat.  I  recommend  much  for  your  perusal  a  Memoir  of  Vivien  de 
Saint  Martin,  published  two  years  ago  at  Paris,  in  which  it  has  been 
proved  that  the  Yuctahs  are  of  Tibetan  origin,  and  not  different  from 
the  white  Huns,  and  that  the  Indian  Jdts  are  their  descendants. 

"  The  second  part  of  the  second  volume  of  my  Indian  Antiquities 
is  at  present  going  through  the  press.  I  hope  to  have  it  finished 
towards  the  end  of  the  year.  Mr.  Konig  has  asked  me  to  present  his 
respectful  compliments  to  you. — I  am,  my  dear  Sir,  with  great  regard, 
your  truly  devoted  CHB.  LASSEN." 

The  correspondence  of  Dr.  Wilson  and  Professor  Wester- 
gaard  at  this  time  is  so  besprinkled  with  Zand  words  and 
letters,  used  in  discussions  referring  to  the  latter's  great 
edition  of  the  Avasta  text,  as  to  be  hopeless  for  quotation. 
One  of  the  volumes  was  dedicated  to  the  Bombay  missionary. 
On  the  21st  of  July  1857  Westergaard  communicated  to  Dr. 
Wilson  his  publication  of  his  edition  of  the  Pahlavi  Bunde- 
hesh,  or  original  creation,  "  from  a  very  old  manuscript  copy 
that  Eask  brought  home  from  India."  Dr.  Wilson  had  written 
to  Dr.  Murray  Mitchell — 

"  I  am  pleased  at  being  anticipated  by  you  in  a  notice  of  the  papers 
of  Drs.  Spiegel  and  Eoth,  with  which  I  have  been  engaged  for  some 
days.  Mr.  Westergaard  wrote  to  me  some  time  ago  intimating  his 


480  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1852. 

opinion,  that  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  principal  person- 
ages of  the  Zand-Avasta,  including  Zoroaster,  whom  he  has  inclined  to 
consider  the  planet  Mercury,  are  entirely  mythical.  Dr.  Roth's  specu- 
lations are  entirely  in  harmony  with  this  idea.  I  feel  a  peculiar 
interest  in  them,  because  some  of  the  analogies  to  which  he  refers  had 
struck  my  own  attention,  as  you  will  see  from  the  notes  at  pp.  295  and 
400  of  my  work  The  Parsi  Religion.  I  have  long  been  of  opinion, 
and  have  taught,  that  the  Yedic  and  ancient  Persian  worship  are 
nearly  identical  in  their  religious  principles.  Bopp,  I  think,  was  the 
first  to  point  out,  from  literal  resemblance,  the  identity  of  Homo,  and 
Soma  ;  and  his  opinion  was  acquiesced  in  by  Burnouf.  Burnouf  iden- 
tifies Yimo  with  Yama ;  but,  as  far  as  I  know,  I  am  the  first  person 
who  has  quoted  the  passage  from  the  ninth  Hd  of  the  Ya§na,  which 
passage  forms  the  ground-work  of  Dr.  Roth's  paper,  and  identified 
Vivanghas  with  Vivasvan.  Burnouf  may  have  made  this  identification 
in  some  article  which  I  have  not  seen,  or  do  not  remember. 

"  Mr.  Westergaard  while  advocating  the  extreme  antiquity  of  the 
Zand  language  and  mythus,  and  the  genuineness  of  certain  fragments 
in  the  Zand-Avasta,  holds  that  the  compilation  of  the  Zand-Avasta 
probably  took  place  in  the  days  of  Ardeshir  Babegan,  when  the  work, 
as  appears  from  its  frequent  defiance  of  grammar  and  sense,  was  much 
corrupted  and  interpolated,  and  this  to  a  great  extent  from  being 
collected  from  imperfect  recitations." 

To  his  Brother-in-law  he  writes — 

"  BOMBAY,  15th  March  1852. 

"  MY  DEAR  MR.  DENNISTOUN. — We  have  just  returned  from  an 
extended  journey  together  in  the  British  Dekhan  and  Khandesh,  in  the 
course  of  which  we  have  incidentally  seen  some  of  the  greatest  wonders 
of  the  west  of  India,  both  natural  and  artificial.  Amongst  the  latter  are 
the  celebrated  excavated  temples  and  monasteries  of  Elora,  Ajunta,  and 
other  localities.  We  wished  you  had  been  with  us  to  assist  us  in 
forming  our  judgment  of  their  architectural  forms,  and  sculptured  and 
painted  figures  and  ornaments,  which,  in  the  case  of  Ajunta,  are  as  old 
as  the  Christian  era,  and  probably  the  workmanship  of  Bactrian  artists 
introduced  into  India  by  its  Buddhist  sovereigns  when  their  dominions 
touched  on  the  Macedonian  conquests  to  the  north  of  India,  They 
throw  a  flood  of  light  on  the  manners  and  customs  of  this  great  country 
in  ancient  times,  of  which  so  little  is  known.  Copies  of  some  of  the 
paintings  you  may  see  in  the  Museum  at  the  India  House. 

"  On  the  course  of  our  tour  I  perused  the  whole  of  the  Dukes  of 


1853.]  STEAM  NAVIGATION  AND  RAILWAYS.  481 

Urbino,  in  the  copy  which  you  so  kindly  presented  to  Isabella  and  my- 
self. I  felt  even  greater  interest  in  the  work  than  when  I  dipped  into 
the  copy  received  for  the  library  of  our  Asiatic  Society.  I  think  that 
it  is  needed  for  the  completeness  of  Italian  history  ;  and  that,  in 
abundance  of  research,  judiciousness  of  compilation  and  digest,  vigour  of 
style,  and  copiousness  of  illustration,  it  is  all  that  can  be  desiderated. 
You  have  in  every  respect  done  the  Dukes  ample  justice,  without 
making  -them  idols,  when  dealing  with  them  as  the  heroes  of  your 
history.  The  collateral  information  which  you  have  associated  with 
them,  though  their  position  and  actings  are  not  always  worthy  of  it, 
is  most  interesting  in  itself,  and  must  be  highly  valued  by  the  anti- 
quarian, the  artist,  the  historian,  and  the  litterateur.  I  like  much  your 
pen-portraits  of  the  poets,  painters,  and  popes.  With  the  accompany- 
ing engravings  they  give  us  a  better  idea  of  their  personnel  than  we 
can  get  elsewhere.  Though  your  work  is  too  weighty  and  worthy  for 
light  readers,  it  will  find  its  way  to  all  good  public  and  private 
libraries  ;  and  it  will  be  a  standard  authority  on  the  subjects  of  which 
it  treats.  Who  wrote  the  notice  of  it  in  the  Edinburgh  ?  The  Revue 
des  Deux  Mondes,  with  an  article  upon  it,  has  just  come  to  our  Asiatic 
Society's  library.  I  should  like  to  know  how  the  work  is  received  in 
Italy.  We  get  no  Italian  periodicals  here,  except  the  transactions  of 
some  of  the  learned  Societies,  though  we  have  the  best  library  in 
Asia." 

To  Mr.  BUCHAN  of  Kelloe. 

"  BOMBAY,  12«fc  September  1853. — During  the  past  year  the  railway 
system  has  been  introduced  into  India.  It  is  certainly  calculated  to 
promote  the  interests  of  civilisation,  but  its  desecration  of  the  Sabbath 
is  a  sad  drawback.  We  are  anxious  about  the  improvement  of  the 
steam  navigation  to  Bombay,  as  various  disasters  have  occurred  in  con- 
sequence of  bad  arrangements,  and  this  monsoon  a  whole  mail  was  lost 
on  board  a  pilgrim  ship,  which  went  down  with  the  loss  of  186  souls. 
We  have  had  a  public  meeting  on  the  subject  called  by  the  Sheriff, 
and  from  the  humane  aspect  of  the  subject  I  felt  constrained  to  yield 
to  the  request  of  our  merchants  that  I  should  take  a  part  in  the  pro- 
ceedings. We  petition  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury  and  the  Directors  of 
the  East  India  Company." 

Apart  from  the  humane  aspect  of  the  question  Dr.  Wilson 
was  in  his  right  place  as  a  leader  in  such  a  meeting,  and 
no  similar  assembly  for  discussing  questions  involving  the 

2  I 


482  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1853. 

moral  and  material  good  of  the  people  of  India  or  the  pro- 
sperity of  Bombay  was  held  without  him.  It  was  in  1773 
that  a  Mr.  Holford  had  navigated  the  first  English  ship  suc- 
cessfully from  its  harbour  up  the  Ked  Sea  to  Suez.  Niebuhr 
then  wrote,  "  the  passage  has  been  found  so  short  and  con- 
venient that  the  regency  of  Bombay  now  send  their  couriers 
by  the  way  of  Suez  to  England."  Not  till  1830  did  Lord 
William  Bentinck  succeed  in  despatching  the  small  Govern- 
ment steamer,  the  "  Hugh  Lindsay/'  from  Bombay  to  Suez, 
after  the  failure  of  rewards  to  quicken  the  Cape  voyage 
and  open  up  the  Euphrates  route.  But  even  that  spent  a 
month  during  March  and  April  on  a  voyage  which  is  now 
done  regularly  in  twelve  days,  and  will  soon  be  accomplished 
in  nine  or  ten.  In  1843  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Com- 
pany ran  its  first  steamer  from  Suez  to  Calcutta.  The  de- 
velopment of  railway  communication  in  India  was  more 
rapid,  thanks  to  Lord  Dalhousie  who  had  been  paramount 
at  the  Board  of  Trade  during  the  mania  of  1848.  What 
Lord  Ellenborough  had  pronounced  "moonshine"  in  1843, 
when  Sir  M.  Stephenson  in  eastern,  Mr.  Chapman  in  western, 
and  Mr.  Andrew  in  north-western  India  projected  the  railways 
which  now  pay  from  five  to  nine  per  cent,  and  are  revolution- 
ising native  society  and  commerce,  became  an  accomplished 
fact  on  the  16th  April  1853.  Then  the  first  section  com- 
pleted in  Asia  was  opened  under  a  royal  salute  and  the 
strains  of  the  National  Anthem,  and  the  first  train  ran  from 
Bombay  island  on  to  the  mainland  to  Tanna,  a  distance  of 
twenty-one  miles.  The  twenty-one  have  now  become  nearly 
eight  thousand. 

On  the  lapse  of  the  Satara  territory  the  Beejapore  library  of 
Arabic  works  came  into  the  possession  of  the  Bombay  Govern- 
ment, which  asked  Dr.  Wilson  to  report  on  their  value.  In  ac- 
cordance with  his  suggestion  the  library  was  sent  to  the  India 
Office.  A  catalogue  raisonnee  of  it  has  since  been  made.  At 


1855.]        REPORTS  ON  OFFICIAL  EXAMINATION  COMMITTEE.       483 

a  later  period,  when  the  University  of  Bombay  received 
Dr.  Hang's  collection  of  MSS.,  Government  consulted  him  on 
the  question  of  the  comparative  injury  to  manuscripts  by 
the  climate  of  Western  India.  The  reply  is  of  permanent 
value  : — 

"  The  dangers  to  which  the  manuscripts  are  exposed  in  a  tropical 
climate  I  have  found  to  be  the  following  : — 1.  Exposure  to  extreme 
heat  and  dry  winds  which  curl  up  and  otherwise  injure  the  paper  or 
skins  on  which  they  are  written,  and  which  render  their  ink  pale  and 
indistinct.  2.  Exposure  to  damp,  which  injures  the  texture  of  their 
material,  and  which  also  makes  their  ink  pale  and  indistinct.  3.  Ex- 
posure to  the  white  ant  and  fringe-tailed  insect,  which  deposit  in  them 
their  eggs,  which,  when  hatched  prove  ravenous  worms.  4.  Exposure 
to  dust  containing  minute  particles  of  lime,  which  corrodes  ink,  and 
paper,  and  parchment.  5.  Exposure  to  the  ravages  of  rats,  mice,  and 
shrews,  so  abundant  in  warm  countries. 

"  The  first  danger  here  specified  is  more  likely  to  be  encountered  in 
the  interior  of  India  than  on  the  coast.  The  second  is  more  likely  to 
be  encountered  on  the  coast  than  in  the  interior.  The  third  is  common 
more  or  less  to  all  the  provinces  of  India  ;  but  on  the  whole,  particularly 
in  the  matter  of  white  ants,  is  more  common  in  the  interior  than  in 
Bombay.  From  the  abundance  of  calcareous  nodules  in  the  Kunkur 
of  the  Dekhan,  the  mischief  from  lime  is  more  likely  to  occur  there 
than  in  Bombay,  where  there  is  comparatively  little  lime  in  the  soil. 
The  plague  of  vermin  is  universal  in  India.  But  on  the  whole  I 
believe  a  fair  conservation  of  manuscripts  is  practicable  both  in  Bombay 
and  the  Dekhan.  Kare  and  valuable  manuscripts  should  be  kept 
(wrapt  up  in  calico)  in  boxes  of  camphor-wood  within  iron  safes. 
Common  and  less  valuable  manuscripts  may  be  kept  in  book-cases 
(with  glass  doors),  on  the  shelves  of  which  a  little  camphor  is  deposited. 
They  should  not  be  lodged  with  printed  books,  of  which  comparatively 
little  care  is  taken.  JOHN  WILSON,  D.D." 

Soon  after  his  return  from  Great  Britain  the  Bombay 
Government  expressed  its  anxiety  to  secure  the  services  of 
Dr.  Wilson  as  President  of  the  Committee  for  the  examina- 
tion of  civilians  and  officers  in  the  native  languages,  vernacu- 
lar and  classical.  The  request  recognised  the  missionary  as 
the  first  scholar  in  Western  India,  and  as  better  fitted  than 


484  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1856. 

any  of  the  members  of  the  services,  civil  or  military,  for  the 
responsible  duty  of  controlling  examinations  by  which,  long 
before  those  of  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners  in  this  country, 
promotion  and  patronage  in  India  had  been  wisely  regulated. 
"  Such  an  influential  position  might  have  been  of  use  to  him 
in  various  ways,"  Mrs.  Wilson  wrote  to  a  friend  in  1849,  "  and 
the  services  required  would  not  have  been  for  more  than  ten 
or  twelve  days  in  a  year.  However,  he  has  declined,  as  he 
wishes  to  be  quite  free  to  give  all  his  time  and  strength  to 
missionary  operations."  In  1855  the  proposal  was  thus 
received  in  a  different,  and  to  him  unobjectionable  because 
temporary  form.  The  Secretary  to  Government  thus  addressed 

him: — 

"BOMBAY  CASTLE,  21s£  November  1855. 

"  With  the  view  of  enabling  Government  to  judge  whether  any, 
and  if  so,  what  changes  may  be  desirable  in  the  constitution  of  the 
Civil  and  Military  Examination  Committee,  the  remuneration  of  its 
members  and  secretary,  and  the  mode  in  which  its  business  is  transacted, 
both  in  and  out  of  its  Examination  Sessions,  I  am  desired  to  convey  the 
request  of  the  Eight  Honourable  the  Governor  in  Council  that  you 
will  favour  Government  by  examining  into  and  reporting  upon  the 
efficiency  and  fairness  of  the  present  system,  and  stating  your  opinion 
as  to  any  changes  which  you  may  consider  called  for.  The  members 
of  the  Examination  Committee  have  been  requested  to  meet  you  to 
give  any  information  which  you  may  require." 

"31st  December  1855. — Government  will,  I  am  desired  to-  state, 
gladly  avail  themselves  of  your  offer  to  occasionally  attend  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Examination  Committee,  but  they  will  feel  still  more 
gratified  if  you  will  do  them  the  favour  of  acting  as  President  of  the 
Committee  during  its  next  session." 

Dr.  Wilson,  who  was  associated  with  Major  G.  Pope,  and 
Mr.  Harkness,  Principal  of  the  Government  College,  gave 
himself  to  the  work  of  inquiry,  before  report,  with  charac- 
teristic thoroughness.  The  constitution  of  the  similar  Examin- 
ing Boards  in  Madras  and  Calcutta — the  latter  created  by 
Lord  Wellesley,  and  consisting  of  Dr.  Sprenger,  the  first  Arabic 


1856.]  DECLINES  TO  BE  GOVERNMENT  TRANSLATOR.  485 

scholar  and  biographer  of  Muhammad  ;  Dr.  K.  M.  Bannerjea, 
Dr.  Duff's  first  convert ;  and  Colonel  N.  Lees — was  carefully 
studied  in  the  light  of  his  experience  of  the  Bombay  languages, 
people,  and  officials.  The  result  was  a  report,  submitted  on 
the  15th  August  1856,  which  has  since  regulated  the  pro- 
fessional examinations  of  Western  India  in  the  Oriental 
languages  and  literatures.  The  document,  which  called  forth 
an  expression  of  the  thanks  of  Government,  contains  not 
only  much  information  regarding  such  examinations,  but  a 
scheme  for  checking  an  arbitrary  judgment  on  the  part  of 
examiners,  which  we  commend  to  the  Civil  Service  Com- 
missioners, as  sorely  needed  in  the  India  Civil  Service  com- 
petitions at  least. 

Meanwhile,  the  Government  of  1849  having  failed  to 
induce  Dr.  Wilson  to  act  as  official  and  permanent  president 
of  this  Examination  Committee,  the  Government  of  1854 
thus  tried,  most  honourably,  to  attract  to  the  public  service 
what  would  have  been  the  leisure  time  of  most  other  men. 
The  great  Carey  had  long  held  a  similar  office,  first  as  Pro- 
fessor in  Lord  Wellesley's  College  of  Fort- William,  and  then 
as  translator  and  examiner,  while  the  same  translatorship  is 
to  this  hour  worthily  filled  by  a  Baptist  minister,  the  son  of 
one  of  his  colleagues.  Connected  with  no  society,  early  thrown 
upon  their  own  resources  for  the  spread  of  Christianity  in 
Bengal,  Carey,  Marshman,  Ward,  and  Mr.  J.  C.  Marshman, 
C.S.I.,  contributed  some  £60,000  of  their  own  earnings 
during  half  a  century  for  missionary  purposes,  maintain- 
ing at  one  time  so  many  as  twenty-six  agents  besides  them- 
selves. In  the  case  of  the  Scottish  Churches  the  circum- 
stances are  very  different,  but  the  temptations  held  out  to 
the  ablest  missionaries  by  the  various  departments  of  Govern- 
ment are  not  less  specious  and  attractive.  The  Private 
Secretary  thus  addressed  Dr.  Wilson,  whose  reply  may  be 
imagined  from  his  letter  to  Dr.  Tweedie  : — 


486  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1856. 

"PARELL,  March  11,  1854. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR. — I  am  desired  by  the  Governor  to  acquaint  you  of  his 
intention,  should  it  be  acceptable  to  you,  of  appointing  you  Oriental  trans- 
lator to  Government.  The  appointment  has  been  created  on  the  occasion 
of  doing  away  with  the  Deputy  Secretaryship  in  the  Persian  Department." 

To  Dr.  TWEEDIE. 

"  1 4th  April  1854. — We  have  lately  had  favourable  accounts  from 
Abyssinia.  Our  native  converts  consider  the  agency  there  as  primarily 
their  mission,  contributing  to  its  support  to  their  utmost  ability,  though 
it  is  principally,  from  their  lack  of  adequate  means,  dependent  on 
other  resources.  Their  duty  of  contributing  to  the  spread  of  the 
Gospel  is  amply  recognised  by  them,  though  most  of  them  are  in  some 
capacity  or  other  themselves  missionary  agents.  We  are  anxious  to 
have  an  industrial  establishment  instituted  for  the  converts  and  cate- 
chumens in  Bombay,  as  a  counteractive  of  the  combinations  and 
excommunications  of  caste.  A  regular  source  of  legitimate  missionary 
revenue  in  the  care  of  all  our  institutions,  we  see  in  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  natives  in  general  to  contribute,  partially  at  least,  to  the 
education  of  their  children.  In  this  way  we  have,  from  the  com- 
mencement of  our  Institution  here,  got  a  small  sum  annually  from  this 
source,  which  we  have  applied  discretionally  for  its  benefit  from  time 
to  time,  especially  in  providing  prizes  and  school  equipments.  But 
something,  I  am  persuaded,  of  a  more  systematic  nature  may  easily  be 
accomplished,  and  that  without  injury  to  the  distinctly  evangelistic 
feature  of  our  operations.  Self-expansion  is  a  desideratum  in  every 
Christian  institution. 

"  In  connection  with  what  I  have  now  stated  to  you,  I  ought 
perhaps  to  mention  that  our  new  Governor,  Lord  Elphinstone,  within 
the  last  few  weeks  made  the  offer  to  me  of  the  superintendence  of  the 
work  of  Government  Oriental  Translation,  which  would  occupy  only  a 
definite  portion  of  my  time,  without  interfering  substantially  with  my 
missionary  engagements,  and  at  the  same  time  secure  a  remuneration 
by  which  I  could  support  a  couple  of  additional  missionaries,  or  enable 
me  to  contribute  directly  to  the  missionary  cause  the  equivalent  of  the 
average  annual  income  of  our  Auxiliary  Society,  which  receives  from 
us  much  care,  and  makes  a  considerable  demand  on  our  time  for  corre- 
spondence with  Christian  friends  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 
Without  consulting  any  friend,  I  at  once  declined  the  proposal,  with 
grateful  acknowledgment  of  the  kindnesses  in  which  I  know  it  origi- 
nated. I  did  this  because  I  believe  that  it  is  not  the  duty  of  any 


1856.]  "  ONLY  A  MISSIONARY."  487 

minister  of  the  Gospel  to  assume  any  secular  engagement,  however 
productive  to  the  cause  of  Christ  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view,  while 
the  Christian  Church  is  willing  to  give  him  fair  support  in  devoting 
himself  wholly  to  the  ministry  of  the  Word  and  prayer,  and  to  efforts 
subordinate  and  auxiliary  to  this  ministry;  and  because  I  am  of 
opinion  that  all  our  exertions  in  stirring  up  our  brethren  to  contribute 
to  the  missionary  cause,  even  when  we  could,  by  a  partial  secularisation 
of  ourselves,  maintain  or  extend  the  operations  already  in  existence,  are 
themselves  of  a  spiritual  character — the  calling  upon  Christian  men  to 
discharge  a  Christian  duty.  On  my  mentioning  this  to  Mr.  Molesworth 
— the  author  of  our  admirable  Marathee  Dictionary,  one  of  the  most 
devoted  Christians  in  India,  and  whose  views  of  Church  order  gene- 
rally agree  with  those  of  the  brethren  at  Plymouth — he  at  once  said, 
'You  have  done  quite  right;  no  amount  of  pecuniary  compensation 
can  be  put  in  the  scale  with  the  entirety  of  your  missionary  service.' 
I  think  we  would  be  unanimous  in  our  mission  in  a  cause  of  this  kind. 
For  the  extension  of  the  missionary  enterprise  both  at  home  and 
abroad  we  must  trust  to  the  promises,  and  providence,  and  Spirit  of 
God.  Though  respected  brethren  in  all  the  Churches  may  tell  us  that 
they  '  see  a  limit '  to  their  benevolent  gifts  or  the  spread  of  the  blessed 
Gospel,  we  must,  like  Nelson,  turn  our  blind  eye  to  this  signal  of 
intermission,  and  act  as  if  it  were  never  made.  The  more  our  souls 
sympathise  with  the  risen  aud  exalted  Saviour,  who  now  .travails  in 
ceaseless  intercession  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  number  of  His 
elect  and  the  establishment  of  His  kingdom,  the  more  readily  shall  we 
write  Holiness  to  the  Lord  on  all  our  possessions  and  acquirements. 
You  will  see  from  our  report  that  last  year  we  raised  Us.  7542  for  our 
Bombay  Mission.  When  the  contributions  for  Poona  and  Satara  are 
added,  we  perceive  that  we  have  had  here  a  missionary  income  of 
.£1200,  exclusive  of  £400  raised  for  the  purposes  of  the  Free  Church 
congregation  to  which  we  minister  during  the  vacancy.  Even  this 
liberality  may  be  much  increased.  It  is  the  principal  source  of  the 
support  of  our  educational  establishments.  The  permission  which  you 
give  us,  in  your  last  most  acceptable  letter,  of  proceeding  with  the  ordi- 
nation of  Mr.  Narayan,  will  be  acted  upon  as  soon  as  possible.  What 
our  hopes  are  in  connection  with  his  ministry  you  well  know." 

When  alluding  to  the  offer  of  this  .appointment  in  a  letter 
to  Miss  Douglas,  Dr.  Wilson  wrote,  "  I  declined  acceptance, 
as  I  wish  to  be,  what  I  have  been  since  the  beginning,  only  a 
missionary''  Next  to  his  ministrations  to  the  spiritual  needs 


488  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1856. 

of  the  people  of  India  his  philanthropic  interest  in  the  efforts 
of  the  Government  to  save  their  bodies  came  hardly  second. 
From  the  discovery  of  the  practice  of  the  murder  of  their 
female  children  by  the  proud  and  poor  Eajkoomars  of  Benares 
by  Jonathan  Duncan  in  1789,  and  the  same  Governor's 
attempts  to  put  down  the  crime  in  Kathiawar,  to  which  the 
Greek  and  Latin  writers  on  India  had  drawn  his  attention  as 
prevalent  then  at  Barygaza  or  Broach,  Dr.  Wilson  had  joyously 
chronicled  the  facts  down  to  the  successful  efforts  of  his  early 
friend  Colonel  Walker.  These  had  been  more  recently 
followed  by  the  measures  wisely  devised  by  Sir  J.  P. 
Willoughby,  Colonels  Lang  and  Le  Grand  Jacob,  and  Mr. 
Malet  and  other  officers,  whose  humane  administration  Dr. 
Wilson  was  in  the  habit  of  illustrating  in  lectures  to  the 
natives  and  in  the  press  as  "gratifying  records  of  British 
benevolence."  Thus  he  created  a  healthy  native  opinion  on 
the  crime,  and  stimulated  Government  to  renewed  vigilance, 
while  he  did  justice  to  some  of  the  most  solid  triumphs  in  the 
history  of  philanthropy  in  the  East.  On  the  27th  April  1857 
he  thus  addressed  Sir  J.  P.  Willoughby.  The  result  was,  as 
he  wrote  to  Dr.  Tweedie,  that  Lord  Elphinstone's  Government 
submitted  to  impartial  Christian  review  "  the  whole  proceed- 
ings from  first  to  last  in  connection  with  the  great  philan- 
thropic, political,  and  judicial  efforts  for  the  suppression  of 
the  awful  crime  of  infant  murder."  The  Court  of  Directors 
warmly  encouraged  the  undertaking,  at  a  time  when  the 
question  of  what  proved  to  be  the  last  renewal  of  their 
Charter — that  of  1853 — was  about  to  come  before  Parliament, 
and  works  like  Sir  John  Kaye's  history  of  its  administration 
were  being  prepared  in  its  defence.  It  was  well  that  the 
Company  enjoyed,  on  this  side  at  least,  the  defence  of  one 
whose  advocacy  was  all  the  more  effectual  that  it  was  purely 
disinterested  and  non-political. 

"  It  has  occurred  to  me  that  after  the  happy  issue  of  your  wise, 


1856-1  HIS  HISTORY  OF  INFANTICIDE.  489 

kind,  and  strenuous  efforts,  mentioned  by  Major  Lang,  the  time  has 
now  come  for  the  publication  of  a  succinct  historical  memoir  of  all  the 
endeavours,  with  their  various  results,  made  by  the  Bombay  Govern- 
ment for  the  suppression  of  the  fearful  crime.  That  work  I  am  most 
willing  to  undertake  as  a  gratifying  record  of  most  important  blessings, 
the  fruit  of  British  rule,  and  as  a  token  of  the  humble  gratitude  felt  by 
many  to  the  Government  and  its  members  and  officials  for  the  warm 
interest  which  they  have  ever  evinced  in  the  cause  of  philanthropy, 
provided  it  appear  acceptable  to  them,  and  they  will  assist  in  securing 
its  circulation  in  those  quarters,  both  in  India  and  home,  where  its 
influence  may  be  most  likely  to  be  useful.  I  mention  this  to  you  for 
the  consideration  of  the  Right  Honourable  the  Governor  in  Council, 
should  you  see  fit  in  any  form  to  lay  the  matter  before  the  Board.  I 
have  no  selfish  end  to  procure  in  the  proposal  which  I  make.  In  early 
life  I  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  Colonel  Walker  when  I  lived  under  the 
roof  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cormack,  whom  he  chose  as  the  historian  of  his 
efforts  in  India.  I  am  well  acquainted  with  the  province  and  people  of 
Kathiawar,  with  their  past  history,  and  with  all  that  has  been  done  for 
their  amelioration.  And  I  am  only  desirous  of  bringing  into  notice 
those  bloodless  conquests  of  love  and  peace,  which  are  too  apt  to  be 
overlooked,  and  which  our  nation  should  know,  particularly  at  a  time 
when  the  Government  of  India  must  pass  under  public  review." 

The  History  of  the  Suppression  of  Infanticide  in  Western 
India  under  the  Government  of  Bombay,  including  notices  of 
ike  Provinces  and  Tribes  in  which  the  Practice  has  prevailed, 
was  published  early  in  1855,  and  obtained  a  wide  circulation. 
When,  in  1870,  the  outbreak  of  the  crime  in  Northern  India 
led  Sir  William  Muir  to  prepare,  and  the  Government  of 
India  to  pass,  Act  VIII.  of  that  year,,  and  the  census  of  1871 
supplied  new  facts,  Dr.  Wilson  was  invited  by  the  Bombay 
Government  to  review  the  state  of  the  districts  to  which  the 
preventive  legislation  was  to  be  applied.  A  few  months 
before  his  death  lie  accordingly  wrote  a  preface  to  Mr.  H.  E. 
Cooke's  report.1  In  Kathiawar,  it  was  proved,  the  crime  had 
ceased  as  a  custom  of  the  Jadejas,  the  proud  descendants  of 

1  No.  147  of  the  New  Series  of  Selections  from  the  Records  of  the  Bombay 
Government. 


490  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1857. 

the  Yadavas  of  the  Mahabharat  epic.  But  the  number  of 
girls  unbetrothed  and  unmarried  was  increasing,  because  no 
Eajpoot  tribe  in  India  will  take  a  wife  from  its  own  proper 
or  paternal  clan,  and  the  Jadejas  were  unpopular  because  of 
occasional  intermarriage  with  Muhammadans.  To  the  advance 
of  an  education  and  a  civilisation  which  recognise  the  place 
of  unmarried  females  in  well-being  and  well-doing  in  the 
general  community,  Dr.  Wilson  looked  for  a  permanent 
remedy  while  suggesting  local  ameliorations.  But  the  only 
immediate  check  on  the  crime  must  be  based  on  a  general 
registration  of  births  and  deaths,  such  as  the  coming  decen- 
nial census  of  1881  should  make  a  preliminary  attempt 
to  render  possible  amid  so  vast  and  varied  and  suspicious  a 
population.  Sir  H.  L.  Anderson,  when  secretary  to  the 
Bombay  Government,  expressed  to  Dr.  Wilson  the  congratu- 
lation of  the  Governor  in  Council  on  "the  very  able  and 
successful"  manner  in  which  he. had  turned  to  account  his 
access  to  the  records  connected  with  infanticide. 

In  1848  Dr.  Wilson  had  been  consulted  by  the  Govern- 
ment as  to  the  publication  of  a  revised  edition  of  the 
Marathee  and  English  dictionary  compiled  by  Mr.  Molesworth 
and  George  and  Thomas  Candy  twenty  years  before.  In 
Marathee  as  in  Bengalee  and  to  a  less  degree  in  the  other 
vernaculars  of  India,  the  influence  of  a  detailed  knowledge 
of  the  people,  English  administration  and  education,  and 
the  progress  of  scholarship  in  the  classical  tongues  from 
which  the  popular  dialects  are  fed,  had  developed  the  voca- 
bularies, and  somewhat  revealed  or  modified  the  grammatical 
expression  of  these  vernaculars.  Dr.  Wilson  replied  that 
Mr.  Molesworth's  "unequalled  attainments  in  the  Marathee 
language,  his  experience  in  lexicography,  and  his  acquaintance 
already  with  some  thousands  of  unrecorded  words,"  pointed 
him  out  as  best  qualified  for  the  undertaking.  In  truth  Dr. 
Wilson  had,  in  his  tours  and  his  intercourse  with  the  peasantry 


1857.]  NOTES  ON  THE  MARATHEE  LANGUAGE.  491 

as  well  as  the  learned  Brahmans  of  Maharashtra,  himself 
made  extensive  collections  of  words  new  to  printed  literature, 
which  he  had  freely  communicated  to  Mr.  Molesworth.  The 
result  was  the  appearance  in  1857  of  the  massive  quarto 
which  forms  the  second  edition  of  a  work  pronounced  to  stand 
in  the  very  first  rank  of  dictionaries.  Dr.  Wilson  was  the 
more  anxious  to  see  Marathee  thus  satisfactorily  placed  among 
the  few  languages  of  men  of  which  a  satisfactory  lexicon  has 
been  made,  that  the  wants  of  Government  and  the  public  in 
connection  with  Goojaratee  might  be  supplied.  This  was 
done  by  the  Parsee  convert  Shapoorjee  Eduljee  eleven  years 
afterwards,  in  an  octavo  volume  of  some  nine  hundred  pages. 
But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  in  Marathee,  as  in  forty 
of  the  languages  of  our  Indian  subjects  and  Chinese  neigh- 
bours, Carey  had  first  provided  a  dictionary  in  1810,  as  well 
as  a  grammar  and  translation  of  the  Scriptures.  Besides  his 
indirect  contribution  to  the  Marathee  Dictionary  of  nearly  a 
thousand  quarto  pages,  Dr.  Wilson  prefaced  it  with  what  even 
the  Germans  would  pronounce  a  model  monograph,  under  the 
title  of  "Notes  on  the  Constituent  Elements,  the  Diffusion 
and  the  Application  of  the  Marathee  Language."  A  wealth 
of  learning  and  information  is  scattered  over  the  text  and 
notes,  while  the  summary  with  illustrative  extracts  of  the  four 
periods  of  Marathee  literature  is  delightfully  readable.  He 
passes  in  review  the  early  poetry,  associating  the  popular  gods 
of  Western  India  with  a  modified  pantheism,  which  preceded 
the  rise  of  Sivajee ;  the  brilliant  era  of  Tukaram  to  the  rise  of 
the  Peshwas ;  the  strains  of  the  priestly  Moropant  and  the 
beginnings  of  prose  chronicles  under  the  Peshwas ;  and  finally 
the  British  period,  which  began  in  1818.  As  the  Serampore 
missionaries  created  a  Bengalee  language  and  literature  in  the 
literary  sense,  so  religion  and  philanthropy  were  the  moving 
powers  in  generating  and  extending  what  may  be  denominated 
the  reformed  authorship  of  Maharashtra,  from'  Mountstuart 


492  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSOX.  [1858. 

Elphinstone  to  his  nephew  Lord  Elphinstone,  and  the  present 
day.  "  Its  most  valuable  monument "  Dr.  Wilson  declared  to 
be  "  the  translation  of  the  whole  of  the  Bible,  by  several  hands, 
into  the  language  of  the  people."  The  Notes  thus  conclude— 
"  The  reformed  Marathee  literature,  and  the  introduction  of 
typography  and  lithography  into  the  West  of  India,  have 
brought  about  a  reaction  in  the  native  mind.  There  has  been 
a  reproduction  of  the  olden  literature.  This  result  will  not 
ultimately  prove  injurious  to  the  cause  of  truth.  It  has 
furnished  the  means  of  comparison  and  judgment ;  and  it  will 
only  enhance  the  victory  when,  by  a  higher  influence  than 
that  of  man,  it  is  eventually  secured."1 

For  some  time  Dr.  Wilson  had  contemplated  a  new  work 
on  Muhammadanism,  to  take  the  place  of  his  early  Refutation; 
but  he  seems  to  have  been  soon  drawn  entirely  to  an  attempt 
to  grapple  with  the  only  enemy  he  had  not  yet  directly 
attacked  in  the  press.  At  every  turn,  as  a  missionary,  a 
scholar,  and  a  man,  in  closer  social  intercourse  with  the 
natives  than  any  other  foreigner,  he  was  met  by  Caste.  He 
had  early  set  himself  to  the  mastery  of  its  origin  and  the 
secret  of  its  power,  and  he  had  in  his  multifarious  reading  of 
the  Hindoo  literature  noted  the  passages  on  the  subject,  from 
the  Rig -Veda  to  the  latest  Poor  an.  He  contemplated  the 
early  publication  of  an  elaborate  work  on  the  subject,  and 
in  1857  he  was  able  to  put  to  press  the  first  volume.  But 
his  missionary  work  was  too  exacting,  and  his  own  ideal  of 
an  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  question  on  which  Hindooism 
hangs  in  the  last  resort,  was  too  high  to  permit  him  to  yield 
to  the  solicitations  of  his  friends  not  to  delay.  The  prospect 
of  the  taking  of  the  first  census  of  the  people  of  India,  finally 
accomplished  only  in  1871-2,  was  a  further  reason,  to  his 

1  Dr.  Wilson  was  the  first  to  observe  that  the  verses  of  the  tailor  Namdeva, 
the  oldest  popular  poet  of  the  Marathas,  and  contemporary  with  Kabeer,  occur 
in  that  strange  medley,  the  Granth  of  the  Sikhs.  See  Dr.  Trumpp's  transla- 
tion, also  page  444  of  this  volume. 


1858.]  INDIA  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO.  493 

mind,  for  toiling  at  a  work,  for  the  perfecting  of  which  he 
maintained  a  large  correspondence  with  learned  Brahmans  for 
many  years,  from  the  venerable  Eada  Kishn,  Runjeet  Singh's 
pundit  at  Lahore,  to  the  Namboories  of  Travancore.  The 
result  was  that  in  publication  he  was  anticipated  by  other 
scholars,  notably  by  Mr.  John  Muir,  D.C.L.,  in  the  invaluable 
Sanskrit  Texts,  and  death  left  his  work  a  splendid  fragment. 
The  first  volume,  virtually  prepared  and  printed  at  this 
period,  is  a  careful  review  of  the  origin  and  develop- 
ment of  Caste  as  seen  in  Sanscrit,  Buddhist,  and  Greek 
literature.  The  second  volume,  which  begins  a  description 
of  the  castes  as  they  are,  does  not  proceed  further  than  the 
most  important  of  them  all,  the  Brahmanical.  The  criticism 
of  the  book  by  so  competent  a  writer  as  Mr.  Rhys  Davids 
may  be  accepted  — "  The  thoroughness  of  the  work  he  has 
done  gives  rise  to  the  regret  that  he  should  have  been  unable 
to  complete  the  inquiry."1 

What  contemporary  as  well  as  subsequent  criticism, 
however,  has  recognised  as  the  ablest  of  all  the  publica- 
tions that  Dr.  Wilson  threw  off  as  mere  bye-works  almost 
every  year,  is  his  India  Three  Thousand  Years  Ago,  or 
the  social  state  of  the  Aryas  on  the  banks  of  the  Indus  in 
the  times  of  the  Vedas,  which  appeared  in  1858.  Mr.  Max 
Miiller's  Chips  were  then  unknown,  and  his  History  of 
Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature  was  only  promised  in  the 
preface  to  his  edition  of  the  Rig -Veda.  To  the  English 
reading  public,  both  in  India  and  elsewhere,  this  popular 
treatise  of  some  ninety  pages  was  'the  first  revelation 
of  what  has  long  since  become  common-place.  It  was 
written  with  a  grace  as  well  as  a  power  which  so  charmed 
all  that  the  most  competent  critic,  in  the  Friend  of  India 
of  that  day,  thus  took  the  author  to  task — "  We  wish  some 
of  the  thousand  friends  of  Dr.  Wilson  would  compel  him  to 

1  The  Academy,  6th  July  1878. 


494  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1861. 

do  the  public  and  himself  a  little  justice.  With  a  pen  of 
unequalled  clearness  and  learning,  of  which  few  are  com- 
petent to  measure  the  extent,  he  persists  in  wasting  his 
strength  on  erudite  little  essays.  .  .  .  The  world  is  craving 
for  a  painting  with  the  details  all  filled  in  and  bright  with 
life  and  colour.  It  is  Dr.  Wilson's  duty  to  supply  the  want, 
and  he  has  no  more  right  to  leave  the  work  to  inferior  artists 
than  Titian  to  sell  studies  as  finished  productions."  But  Dr. 
Wilson  was  so  much  the  Christian  philanthropist  that  even 
his  learning  is  saturated  with  his  love  for  man  in  the  highest 
sense,  as  expressed  sometimes  after  a  curious  fashion.  This 
is  a  note  to  this  very  treatise — "  The  MS.  copy  of  the  Rig- 
Veda,  in  my  possession  for  many  years,  and  which  I  origin- 
ally acquired  for  J.  S.  Law,  Esq.,  of  the  Bombay  Civil  Service, 
is  a  Christian  trophy  surrendered  by  a  Brahman  convert  to 
Christianity,  baptized  at  Bankote  by  the  Eev.  James  Mitchell." 
Dr.  Wilson  would  never  have  written  his  best  book  but  for 
the  public  good.  He  prepared  the  nucleus  of  it  as  one  of  a 
course  of  lectures  to  the  Bombay  Mechanics'  Institute,  pro- 
jected under  "the  considerate  and  vigorous  government"  of 
Lord  Elphinstone.  Other  public  lectures  which  belong  to 
this  period,  but  have  not  yet  seen  the  light  in  a  complete 
form,  are  those  on  the  "  Progress  of  Oriental  Kesearch  in  con- 
nection with  Eeligious  Inquiry,"  and  on  "  The  Six  Schools  of 
Indian  Philosophy,"  delivered  at  the  request  of  the  Bombay 
Dialectic  Association. 

To  Professor  CH.  LASSEN,  Bonn. 

"  BOMBAY,  II th  September  1861. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR. — I  have  the  pleasure  of  forwarding  to  you  a 
series  of  photographs  by  my  friend  Mr.  W.  Johnson,  illustrative  of  the 
Caves  of  Karla,  with  illustrative  text  from  my  own  hand.  They  form 
the  best  specimens  of  the  photographic  art  as  applied  in  India  ;  and  as 
correctly  representing  our  most  interesting  Buddhist  remains  ;  they 
could  not  be  better  bestowed  than  on  the  distinguished  author  of  the 
Indische  Alterthumskunde.  I  hope  that  they  will  reach  you  in  safety 


1862.]  LETTER  TO  PROFESSOR  LASSEN.  495 

and  be  accepted  by  you  as  a  token  of  my  respect  and  esteem.  The  text 
accompanying  the  photographs  is  merely  an  extract  from  a  popular 
lecture  which  I  lately  delivered  to  our  local  Mechanics'  Institution. 
You  will  see  from  its  eighth  page  that  I  attribute  the  original  construc- 
tion of  the  Caves  of  Karla  to  the  Emperor  Asoka.  I  found  on  the 
oldest  of  all  their  inscriptions,  that  above  the  elephants  to  the  left  of  the 
porch,  the  greater  portion  of  which  you  will  see  in  one  of  the  photo- 
graphs. The  form  of  the  letters  in  this  inscription  is  like  that  of  the 
Girnar  tablets ;  and  the  plan  of  the  excavations  befits  the  great 
Emperor.  They  are  in  a  locality  such  as  he  would  choose — the  mouth 
of  the  easiest  pass  through  the  Sahya  Mountains  to  the  Konkan. 

"  We  are  not  making  much  real  progress  in  the  West  of  India  in  a 
sure  decipherment  of  the  cave  inscriptions,  though  some  of  them  we 
read  at  the  first  glance  of  the  eye.  Mr.  Brett's  copies,  the  foundation 
of  the  transliteration  and  translations  of  my  friend  the  late  Dr. 
Stevenson,  have  been  found  to  be  not  so  trustworthy  as  could  be 
desired.  A  learned  Brahman,  Vishnoo  Shastree,  employed  for  some 
considerable  time  principally  in  converting  the  Magadhee  of  the  inscrip- 
tions into  the  corresponding  Sanscrit  (as  is  quite  necessary 
for  the  verification  of  any  translations)  has  just  died  with  his  work 
incomplete  and  unedited,  and  but  little  appreciated  by  those  who,  on  the 
one  hand,  have  a  shorter  method  of  satisfying  themselves  with  results, 
and,  on  the  other,  little  sympathy  with  the  errors  into  which  every 
pundit  is  prone  to  fall.  The  work,  it  is  obvious,  must  be  left  to  private 
enterprise. 

"  I  have  at  present  a  work  on  Caste  in  the  press.  I  need  not  tell 
you  how  much  I  have  been  indebted  in  preparing  it  to  your  previous 
researches  in  Indian  history.  In  connection  with  it  I  have  been  lately 
going  over  the  Vedic  works  to  which  I  have  access.  Last  year  I  visited 
Kajpootana.  The  most  curious  fact  I  noticed  there  was  that  the  temple 
of  Brahma,  at  the  Pokhur  lake  (mentioned  by  Colonel  Tod),  is  not  under 
the  care  of  the  Hindoo  priesthood  but  of  voluntary  devotees. 

"  I  suppose,  from  your  plan,  that  your  great  work  on  India  will 
soon  come  to  its  close.  All  will  be  thankful  if  you  are  spared  to  finish 
it.  I  am,  my  dear  Sir,  very  truly  and  respectfully  yours, 

"Jo^N  WILSON." 
From  Professor  GOLDSTUCKER. 

"LONDON,  September  3,  1862. 

"  DEAR  SIR. — The  extreme  kindness  with  which  you  exerted  your- 
self on  behalf  of  the  literary  wishes  I  some  time  ago  expressed  to  our 
mutual  and  excellent  friend  Mr.  John  Muir,  while  laying  me  under 


496  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1862. 

the  deepest  obligation  to  you,  gives  me  the  advantage  of  addressing 
these  words  to  you  not  as  a  total  stranger,  for  there  is  no  link  which 
connects  human  minds  better  than  that  of  gratitude.  Allow  me  there- 
fore, in  the  first  instance,  to  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  your  great 
obligingness  in  not  only  procuring  me  the  book  which  Colonel  Lang  was 
good  enough  to  bring  home  for  me,  but  also  enabling  me  to  entertain 
hopes  for  getting  a  copy  of  the  '  Mahabhashya'  and  '  Tutata.'  The 
price  asked  for  the  former  deters  me  at  present  from  availing  myself 
of  the  offer,  but  I  should  feel  very  happy  to  possess  '  Tutata.'  It 
may  be  desirable  to  ascertain  whether  the  work,  described  by  your 
pundit,  is  really  that  of  '  Tutdta,'  and  not  the  '  Varttikas'  of  Kumarila, 
whom  some  late  commentators — I  believe  wrongly — identify  with  the 
celebrated  Mimansist ;  but  as  I  do  not  wish  to  add  to  the  inconvenience 
you  so  kindly  have  already  incurred  by  asking  you  to  verify  this 
literary  point,  I  shall  gladly  defer  to  your  own  judgment,  and  request 
your  pundit  to  order  the  book  for  me  if  he  considers  it  worth  150 
rupees.  In  this  case  I  should  feel  greatly  obliged  to  you  if  you 
informed  me  whether  you  allow  me  to  pay  the  amount  to  a  Bombay 
firm  in  London  or  to  a  bookseller  who  is  connected  with  Bombay. 

"  As  I  do  not  know  whether  Mr.  Muir  was  kind  enough,  in  a  letter 
to  you,  to  allude  to  the  pursuits  in  which  I  am  engaged,  you  allow  me 
perhaps  briefly  to  mention  them  ;  for  I  should  feel  truly  happy  if,  by 
coinciding  with  yours,  they  enabled  me  to  become  useful  to  you. 

"  About  twenty  years  ago  I  conceived  the  plan  of  collecting  mate- 
rials for  a  comprehensive  history  of  Hindu  philosophy.  I  began  with 
the  Piirva  Mimansa  ;  but  as  it  compelled  me  to  enter  into  the  end- 
less domain  of  Vaidik  researches,  which  at  that  time  had  scarcely 
been  taken  up  by  any  one  except  Colebrooke,  my  progress  was  slow  ; 
and  it  is  only  now  that  I  shall  feel  competent  to  lay  some  of  my 
results  before  the  public.  As  I  intend  to  give  first  the  principal 
works  of  each  system — so  far  as  they  may  not  yet  be  known — I  shall 
commence  with  the  latest  but  the  clearest  Mimansa  work,  Madhava's 
'  Jaiminiya-nyaya-mala-vistara '  (60  sheets  of  which  are  already  struck 
off) ;  the  next  will  be  Jaimini's  '  Sutras,'  and  then  the  '  Commentary '  of 
Sabara,  and  the  *  Varttikas'  of  Kumarila  ;  and  if  possible  older  works 
amongst  which  I  count  that  of  Tutdta,  to  judge  from  quotations  ; 
which,  however,  are  not  safe  enough  to  be  entirely  credible. 

"  Besides  this  branch  of  Sanskrit  literature,  it  was  especially  the 
grammatical  literature  which  occupied  me  most,  partly  because  I  felt 
convinced  that  it  embodies  the  greatest  scientific  achievement  of  ancient 
India,  and  partly  because  it  yields  the  only  safe  means  for  judging  of 


1862.]  LETTER  FROM  PROFESSOR  GOLDSTUCKER.  49*7 

questions  of  ancient  Hindu  chronology.  Its  importance  in  this  respect 
I  endeavoured  to  show  in  one  of  my  last  publications  (the  introduction 
to  the  '  Manava  Kalpa  Sutra ') ;  and  I  may  add  that  having  been 
induced  by  a  sharp  attack  of  Professor  Weber  to  re-examine  the  results 
I  arrived  at  then,  I  shall  have  soon  occasion  of  adducing  further  proof 
for  their  correctness,  and  of  giving  new  results.  Having  thus  become 
familiar  with  the  '  Mahabhashya '  and  its  commentaries,  and  having 
made  very  extensive  indices  of  this  portion  of  Sanscrit  literature,  it 
would  have  been  my  greatest  desire  to  prepare  a  critical  edition  of 
the  '  Mahabhashya/  for  which  my  materials  have  been  gradually 
collecting  during  twenty-two  years  ;  but  the  material  difficulties  which 
oppose  themselves  to  such  a  plan  are  so  great,  that  my  intention,  I 
fear,  will  have  to  remain  amongst  the  pia  desideria  of  my  mind. 

"  Between  these  two  directions  my  Dictionary,  as  you  are  probably 
aware,  steers  slowly  along.  It  was  originally  intended  (and  actually 
commenced)  as  a  third  edition  of  Wilson's  work  ;  but  necessity  was 
stronger  than  myself,  and  in  view  of  the  reckless  and  unconscientious 
proceedings  of  the  German  Sanscrit  Dictionary  of  Boehtlingk  and 
Roth,  which,  in  my  opinion,  falsifies  the  very  sources  of  Sanscrit 
studies,  no  choice  is  left  to  me  but  to  go  on  as  I  do -now.  I  should 
say,  however,  that  I  have  now  the  possibility  of  bringing  out  three  to 
four  parts  yearly,  and  that  I  hope  thus  to  complete  the  wprk,  if  I  am 
spared,  in  about  eight  years. 

"  I  have  encroached  on  your  patience  too  much  to  venture  in  this 
letter  on  any  questions  of  detail.  I  should  feel  delighted,  however,  if 
our  correspondence  gave  me  the  possibility  of  entering  into  matters  on 
which  your  life  in  India,  and  your  intercourse  with  the  pundits, 
enables  you  to  entertain  more  unbiassed  views  than  we  may  have  in 
Europe.  I  am  alluding,  amongst  others,  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
Vedas.  You  know,  no  doubt,  the  sad  havoc  which  is  made  in 
Germany  of  the  greatest  Hindu  scholars  and  divines,  and  the  supreme 
conceit  with  which  a  newfangled  method  of  reading  Vedic  hymns  has 
been  started  into  life.  It  supersedes  everything,  and  places  the  whole 
religious  development  of  India  into  the  air.  As  I  am  told  by  learned 
natives  that  there  exists  an  ancient  Tamul  version  of  the  Vedas,  it 
would  be  a  matter  of  great  importance  to  ascertain  whether  such  is  the 
case,  and  if  so,  to  compare  Sayana's  commentary  with  such  a  version. 
This  is  one  of  the  many  instances  where  it  is  necessary  to  be  in  India  in 
order  to  obtain  the  materials  required,  and  where  we  poor  Europeans 
are  left  helpless. 

"  Muir's  fourth  volume  of  the  Original  Sanskrit  Texts  has  progressed 

2  K 


498  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1854. 

as  far  as  p.  240.  This  work  is  one  of  the  most  useful  and  of  the  most 
'conscientious  which  have  been  published  of  late.  The  less  it  is 
pretending  the  greater  its  influence  will  be.  Natives  of  rank  whom  I 
know  here  have  admitted  to  me  that  their  orthodoxy  has  received 
a  very  salutary  shock  by  it.  Its  effect  must  necessarily  be  much 
greater  than  the  Dialogues  on  Hindu  Philosophy  by  Professor  Banerjea, 
which,  though  very  cleverly  written,  do  not  do  justice  to  Hindu 
philosophy. 

"  As  I  mentioned  before,  my  preface  to  the  M.  K.  S.,  which  is 
also  separately  printed  under  the  title  '  Panini,'  etc.,  I  ought  to  have 
apologised  to  you  for  the  pleasure  I  did  myself  to  send  you  a  copy  of 
each,  with  the  request  of  accepting  them  as  a  mark  of  my  sincere 
regards,  and  of  my  gratitude  for  your  great  kindness.  Being  convinced 
of  your  indulgence,  I  could  only  have  wished  that  this  feeble  attempt 
of  pointing  out  the  importance  of  '  Panini '  had  been  worthier  of 
being  offered  to  you  than  it  is. — Believe  me,  dear  Sir,  very  faithfully 
yours,  TH.  GOLDSTUCKER." 

Alas !  this  most  ripe  scholar  was  cut  off  all  too  soon  for 
the  cause  of  Orientalism,  but  not  before  he  had  enriched 
CTiambers's  Cyclopaedia  with  the  ablest  articles  on  the  philo- 
sophies of  India  to  be  found  in  English  literature,  and  had 
trained  several  of  the  Competition- Wallas  who  are  forming 
a  new  school  of  learning  in  the  East. 

All  through  his  administration  Lord  Elphinstone's  corre- 
spondence with  Dr.  Wilson  was  frequent  on  social,  statistical, 
and  oriental,  as  well  as  political  subjects.  We  have  only  his 
Lordship's  replies.  The  Government  of  India  had  disallowed 
the  appointment  of  Professor  Green  as  editor  of  those  selec- 
tions from  the  Bombay  records  for  which  Dr.  Wilson  had  long 
craved ;  arguing  that  the  duty  of  editing  was  discharged  by 
the  secretaries  of  the  other  provincial  Governments.  Lord 
Elphinstone  wrote,  when  communicating  this  to  Dr.  Wilson  : — 

"DAPOORIE,  9th  August  1854.  ...  I  know  that  there  is  a  great 
deal  to  be  said  on  the  other  side — that,  for  instance,  these  Governments 
have  no  military,  naval,  or  political  departments  (or  at  least  very  little 
in  these  departments,  the  Government  of  India  relieving  them  of  these 


1854.]  LORD  ELPHINSTONE'S  CORRESPONDENCE.  499 

matters),  and  that  they  have  Boards  of  Kevenue  which  relieve  the 
Government  of  all  the  revenue  details,  which  are  here  gone  into  in  the 
first  instance  in  the  Secretary's  office,  and  which  take  up  nearly  the 
whole  time  of  one  of  our  four  secretaries.  Still  it  is  not  easy  to  convince 
people  at  a  distance,  who  are  used  to  a  different  system,  that  this  is  the 
case,  and  I  can  see  that  it  must  appear  preposterous,  that  with  four 
secretaries  we  should  require  some  one  to  help  us  to  perform  a  duty 
which  is  discharged  by  the  single  secretary  in  Bengal,  and  in  the  North- 
west Provinces.  I  regret  this  very  much  myself,  for  I  was  anxious  to 
collect  and  digest  a  great  deal  of  statistical  information,  which  I  think 
would  be  of  great  value — but  which  at  present  I  see  no  means  of 
arranging. 

"  I  hope  we  shall  be  able  to  give  the  Syrian  Archbishop  and 
his  attendants  a  free  passage  to  Suez  by  the  steamer  which  leaves  on 
the  30th,  and  I  will  request  Sir  H.  Leeke  to  desire  that  he  shall  be 
treated  with  proper  respect.  I  shall  also  be  most  happy  to  contribute 
to  his  means  of  reaching  Damascus  from  Egypt,  and  I  enclose  a  draft 
for  200  rupees  for  this  purpose.  I  am  sorry  thet  General  Cullen 
should  have  treated  this  poor  Archbishop  with  any  want  of  courtesy. 
I  am  sure  it  must  have  been  unintentional — or  at  least  that  he  may 
have  been  led  into  a  very  short  style  of  correspondence  from  his  expe- 
rience of  the  rival  Metran's  character. 

"  I  am  extremely  glad  to  find  that  you  approve  of  our  having 
acknowledged  the  good  spirit  shown  by  the  natives  of  Bombay  on  the 
late  day  of  prayer  and  humiliation.  I  thought  that  it  would,  have 
been  both  ungrateful  and  impolitic  to  let  such  manifestations  pass  with- 
out notice.  Your  translation  of  the  Jaina  prayer  is  particularly  inter- 
esting. I  thought  the  Jains,  like  some  other  sects  of  Buddhists,  denied 
the  providence  but  not  the  existence  of  God,  whom  they  supposed  to  be 
in  a  state  of  quiescent  beatitude,  into  which  ultimatelythey  hoped  to 
be  absorbed.  Though  not  deeply  versed  in  their  religious  tenets,  I 
must  say  that  I  was  very  much  interested  in  your  account  of  their 
Jati's  visit  to  you,  and  of  his  prayer.  I  am  also  much  obliged  to  you 
for  the  number  of  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator,  and  have  read  with 
much  interest  your  account  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  Brahmanism 
and  Caste.  I  was  present  the  other  day  at  the  examination  of  some  of 
the  senior  classes  at  your  mission  school  here.  Mr.  Mitchell  seems  to 
have  a  very  good  way  with  his  pupils,  and,  as  far  as  one  can  judge 
from  such  a  cursory  visit,  he  has  succeeded  in  opening  their  under- 
standings, and  consequently  in  weakening  the  bonds  of  Caste.  It  was 
a  very  gratifying  visit.  I  cannot  end  this  letter  without  asking  you  to 


500  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1854. 

read  a  pamphlet  which  the  Bishop  of  Bombay  was  good  enough  to 
place  in  my  hands.  It  is  the  Charge  of  the  Bishop  of  Victoria,  and 
gives  a  most  interesting  account  of  the  Chinese  War  in  its  religious 
aspect.  I  think,  perhaps,  your  son  might  transfer  some  of  it  to  the 
columns  of  the  Bombay  Times  with  great  advantage,  and  I  am  sure 
that  many  of  his  readers  would  appreciate  it.  The  philological  parts 
will  no  doubt  interest  you  greatly.  I  confess  I  think  from  reading  it 
that  the  Pope  was  right  in  adopting  Teen  Choo,  though,  now  that  the 
Chinese  themselves  have  returned  to  the  original  Shang  te,  I  agree 
with  the  Bishop  that  they  have  taken  the  question  out  of  our  hands, 
and  that  our  missionaries  can  only  use  the  name  which  they  them- 
selves have  applied  to  God.  Believe  me,  in  haste,  my  dear  Dr.  Wilson, 
yours  most  truly,  ELPHINSTONE." 

"  Wednesday. — I  hope  you  may  be  disengaged  on  Friday,  as  I  want 
you  to  meet  Major  Cunningham  of  the  Bengal  Engineers  (Allan  Cun- 
ningham's son),  who  is  interested  as  you  are  in  Indian  Archaeology,  and 
who  has  written  a  book,  which  I  have  not  read,  about  Buddhist  Topes, 
etc.,  and  another  about  Tibet,  which  I  have  only  been  able  to  look 
into.  I  met  him  some  years  ago  in  the  wilds  between  that  country 
and  Simla.  You  will  also  meet  Colonel  Jacob." 

"  Monday,  2d  April. — Would  you  and  Mrs.  Wilson  excuse  a  short 
invitation  and  dine  here  to-morrow,  to  meet  Colonel  Rawlinson,  who 
is  just  arrived  from  Baghdad  ?  " 

"  Thursday,  Qth  March. — I  beg  to  return  your  valuable  book  upon 
Palmyra  and  Baalbek,  with  many  thanks.  The  Due  de  Vallombrosa 
recognised  the  general  accuracy  of  the  delineations,  but  he  told  me 
that  the  temples  have  become  much  more  ruinous  than  they  were 
when  these  drawings  were  taken.  The  nine  great  pillars,  for  instance, 
in  the  principal  temple  are  reduced  to  six. 

"  I  don't  know  if  you  or  Mrs.  Wilson  care  about  music.  If  so, 
perhaps  you  might  like  to  come  here  to-night ;  the  Choral  Society  meet 
here,  and  I  hope  we  shall  have  some  good  music." 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 

1857-1864. 
THE  MUTINY  AND  ITS  GOOD  FRUIT. 

The  year  1857  a  fruitful  period — The  alleged  causes  of  the  Mutiny — Western 
India  quiet  in  spite  of  them — The  Bombay  rabble — Lord  Elphinstone  assisted 
by  Dr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Forjett — Deciphering  the  Treasonable  Letters  of  the 
Natives — The  Massacre  of  Missionaries  at  Sialkot — Lord  Elphinstone's  corre- 
spondence with  Dr.  Wilson — Loyalty  of  Bombay  city — Dr.  Wilson's  Humilia- 
tion and  Thanksgiving  Lectures — The  Government  of  India  constitutionally 
Christian — United  Presbyterian  Mission  to  Rajpootana — Mr.  Shoolbred's 
narrative  of  Tour  with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson— Timidity  of  the  authorities — 
Mrs.  Wilson's  letters — Dr.  Wilson's  interview  with  the  late  Gaikwar — With 
the  Maharaja  Tukht  Singh  of  Joudhpore — With  Holkar — The  Education 
Despatch  of  1854 — The  result  of  co-operation  between  the  Missionaries  and 
Government — Dr.  Wilson's  criticism  of  the  new  policy — The  three  Universities 
founded  in  the  height  of  the  Mutiny — Dr.  Wilson's  influence  on  the  Bombay 
University  Regulations — Appointed  Vice-Chancellor — Eulogy  of  Native  Bene- 
factors at  laying  Foundation-stone  of  University  Hall — Correspondence  with 
Governor  on  the  death  and  character  of  Mountstuart  Elphinstone. 


"  Large,  England,  is  the  debt 

Thou  owest  to  heathendom  ; 
To  India  most  of  all,  where  Providence, 
Giving  thee  thy  dominion  there  in  trust, 

Upholds  its  baseless  strength." 

"  Eegard  the  expanded  Orient,  from  the  shores 

Of  scorch'd  Arabia  and  the  Persian  Sea, 
To  where  the  inhospitable  ocean  roars 

Against  the  rocks  of  frozen  Tartary  ; 
Look  next  at  those  Australian  isles  which  lie 
Thick  as  the  stars  that  stud  the  wintry  sky  ; 

' '  There  let  thy  mind  contemplative  survey 

That  spacious  region  where  in  elder  time 
Earth's  unremember'd  conquerors  held  the  sway  ; 

And  science,  trusting  in  her  skill  sublime, 
With  lore  abstruse  the  sculptur'd  walls  o'erspread, 
Its  import  now  forgotten  with  the  dead. 

"  From  Nile  and  Congo's  undiscover'd  springs 

To  the  four  seas  which  gird  the  unhappy  land, 
Behold  it  left  a  prey  to  barbarous  Kings, 

The  Eobber  or  the  Trader's  ruthless  hand  ; 
Sinning  and  suffering,  everywhere  unblest, 
Behold  her  wretched  sons,  oppressing  and  opprest ! 

"  To  England  is  the  Eastern  empire  given, 

And  hers  the  sceptre  of  the  circling  main  ; 
Shall  she  not  then  diffuse  the  word  of  Heaven 

Through  all  the  regions  of  her  trusted  reign 
Wage  against  evil  things  the  hallo w'd  strife, 
And  sow  with  liberal  hand  the  seeds  of  life  ! 

'  By  strenuous  efforts  in  a  rightful  cause 

Gloriously  hath  she  surpass' d  her  ancient  fame, 
And  won  in  arms  the  astonish' d  World's  applause. 

Yet  may  she  win  in  peace  a  nobler  name, 
And  Nations  which  now  lie  in  error  blind, 
Hail  her  the  Friend  and  Teacher  of  Mankind  !  " 

SOUTHEY  :  Carmen  Nuptiale  for  the  Princess  Charlotte. 


1857.]  A  SAD  YET  FRUITFUL  YEAR.  503 


CHAPTEE   XVI. 

WHETHER  it  hereafter  proves  true  that  the  history  of  the 
British  Empire  of  India  began  only  with  the  Mutiny  cam- 
paigns of  1857-1858,  to  which  the  century's  conquests  and 
administrative  experiments  of  the  East  India  Company  were 
but  a  prelude,  the  annus  tristis  was  also  the  annus  mirabilis 
—remarkable  for  the  birth  of  missionary  extension  and 
educational  reform  from  the  very  womb  of  massacre  and 
revolt.  From  185*7  Christian  missions  and  philanthropy  in 
India  received  an  impetus  which  they  feel  to  this  hour. 
Dr.  Wilson  was  the  first  to  guide  that  to  the  establishment  of 
the  United  Presbyterian  Church  amid  the  eighteen  princi- 
palities of  Rajpootana.  In  the  smoke  of  the  Mutiny  and  its 
punishment  the  three  Universities  were  legislatively  called 
into  existence,  and  the  seeds  of  systems  of  primary  education 
were  sown.  The  answer  of  the  Christian  rulers  of  India  to 
the  brief  but  bitter  madness  of  its  pampered  soldiery  and 
pensioned  princes  was — more  light.  There  may  still  be 
doubt  how  far  the  administrative  changes,  politically  and 
financially,  of  the  Government  of  the  Empress  are  an  improve- 
ment on  the  system  under  which  the  Company  won  and  built 
up  the  empire  it  bequeathed  to  the  crown.  There  can  be  none 
as  to  the  vast,  even  infinite,  benefit  of  the  new  regime  on  the 
side  of  education  and  of  the  complete  toleration  of  all  religions, 
not  excluding  Christianity  as  the  legislation  of  the  Company 
did  in  spite  of  Lord  William  Bentinck  and  Lord  Dalhousie. 

The  panic  wave  of  military  and  political  unrest,  which 
swept  over  Northern  India  from  the  Hooghly  to  the  Upper 


504  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1857. 

Indus,  found  and  left  the  great  Western  Province  peaceable 
and  loyal.  In  none  of  the  eloquent  misrepresentations  which 
he  called  "  history,"  has  the  late  Sir  John  Kaye  been  more  un- 
fortunate than  in  his  account  of  Bombay.  According  to  the 
obsolete  school  who  see  in  that  very  progress,  which  is  the  sole 
justification  of  our  Eastern  Empire  at  all,  an  excuse  for  revolt, 
the  causes  of  mutiny  abounded  more  in  the  land  of  the  Marathas 
than  in  any  other.  Annexation,  lapse,  resumption  of  holdings, 
confiscation  of  rent-free  tenures,  and  the  proselytismof  Christian 
missionaries  with  the  consent  and  educational  co-operation  of 
the  Government — the  five  causes  of  the  Mutiny  according  to 
some  short-sighted  conservatives — had  been  altogether  more 
luxuriant  in  the  West  of  India  than  in  Oudh  or  the  Delhi 
territory,  or  anywhere  else.  Yet  it  would  be  easy  to  prove 
that  it  was  these  very  causes — the  extinction,  legally  and 
equitably,  of  centres  of  intrigue ;  the  care  for  the  peasantry 
abandoned  to  irresponsible  talookdars;  the  intelligence  and 
benevolence  of  reformers  like  Dr.  Wilson  and  the  authorities 
whom  he  stirred  up,  which  kept  the  panic  to  the  north  of 
the  Vindhyas,  or  to  two  or  three  isolated  spots  where  there 
was  not  even  the  ordinary  garrison  to  keep  the  peace. 

But  the  temper  of  the  Bombay  army,  and  the  intelligence 
of  the  Bombay  people  in  and  out  of  the  capital,  were  severely 
tested.  So  far  as  the  mutiny  .assumed  a  Hindoo  aspect  it 
was  Bombay  in  its  origin.  The  infamous  Nana  Dhoondopunt, 
whom  Sir  John  Malcolm  has  been  blamed  for  treating  so 
generously,  gave  himself  out  as  the  political  representative  of 
his  adoptive  father,  the  last  of  the  Peshwas,  and  as  the  head 
of  Hindooism.  As  he  had  sent  his  quondam  menial 
Azimoollah  to  be  lionised  in  London,  and  to  see  the  weak- 
ness of  England  in  the  early  stages  of  the  Crimean  War,  so 
the  Satara  agent,  Eungo  Bapoojee,  had  been  active  in  the 
old  India  House.  It  was  to  Maharashtra  that  the  ringleaders 
of  the  Bengal  sepoys  looked  for  the  rousing  of  the  whole  west 


1857.]  MUTINY  INFLUENCES  IN  BOMBAY.  505 

and  south  of  India.  In  reply  to  a  missive  from  the  75th 
Bengal  Native  Infantry  a  sepoy  wrote  from  Bengal  in  an 
intercepted  letter — "  We  are  your  children ;  do  with  us  as  it 
may  seem  best  to  you ;  in  your  salvation  is  our  safety.  We 
are  all  of  one  mind ;  on  your  intimation  we  shall  come  run- 
ning." Poona  and  Satara  had  memories  of  Sivajee  and  his 
generals,  of  Maratha  ambition  and  Hindoo  glories,  not  second 
to  Delhi  in  Muhammadan  eyes.  But-  Poona  and  Satara  were 
names  to  conjure  with  only  in  the  far-off  Ganges  valley.  Of 
Western  India  itself  the  statement  of  Dr.  Wilson  at  the  time 
is  true — "  Incipient  mutiny  in  the  Bombay  army  at  Kolhapore, 
Ahmedabad,  Kurachee,  and  some  other  stations,  was  early 
discovered  and  readily  crushed."  At  two  places  only  did  it 
become  overt,  Kolhapore  and  Nurgoond.  Of  the  fifteen  hun- 
dred English  massacred  by  the  sepoys  and  rabble  in  1857-58, 
of  whom  240  were  military  officers,  4  were  chaplains,  and"  10 
were  missionaries  and  their  wives,  only  one  fell  in  Western 
India  the  civilian  Mr.  Manson.  Yet  by  the  three  approaches  of 
Eajpootana,  of  the  Yindhyas,  and  of  Nagpore  and  Hyderabad, 
the  mutineers  of  the  north  vainly  tried  to  reach  Maharashtra 
under  Tathya  Topya  and  Bala  Eao.  Instead  of  their  succeed- 
ing it  was  from  Bombay  that  the  first  help  was  sent  to  Lord 
Canning  in  the  despatch  of  the  troops  of  the  Persian  expedi- 
tion ;  and  from  Bombay  that  Sir  Hugh  Eose,  at  a  later  period, 
restored  peace  right  up  through  central  India  to  the  Ganges. 

While  the  Mutiny  was  purely  military  in  its  origin,  and 
owed  its  opportunity  to  the  reduction  of  the  British  troops 
from  thirty-seven  to  twenty-two  regiments  for  the  Crimean 
and  Persian  wars,  in  spite  of  the  unanswered  protest  of  Lord 
Dalhousie,  the  sepoys  found  the  vilest  confederates  and  agents 
in  the  swashbuckler  rabble  of  the  great  cities  and  canton- 
ments. Bombay  was  such  a  city.  To  this  day  the  fanatical 
passions  of  the  Parsee  and  the  Muhammadan  sometimes  blaze 
up  into  a  conflict,  while  the  Hindoos  there  are  the  boldest  in  all 


506  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1857. 

India.  Around  the  three  communities  whom  English  law 
and  institutions,  born  of  the  Christian  faith,  have  made  at  once 
independent  and  wealthy,  there  has  gradually  gathered  the 
scum  of  Asia  and  Africa,  sailors  and  traders,  adventurers  and 
pilgrims,  criminals  and  loafers,  slave-dealers  and  eunuch  or 
boy  and  girl  kidnappers,  such  as  the  polygamous  and  sexual 
cults  of  the  East  require  as  their  ininistrants.  Two  men  knew 
these  well — the  missionary  who  had  spent  his  life  among 
them,  as  he  had  seen  the  population  doubling  to  above  half  a 
million;  and  Mr.  Forjett,  the  commissioner  of  police,  who 
had  justly  held  the  balance  of  law  between  proselytisers  and 
votaries  of  all  creeds.  A  government  like  that  of  the  Turk 
would  have  made  of  Bombay  at  this  time  what  Damascus 
became  in  the  Syrian  massacres  soon  after.  But  Lord 
Elphinstone  was  not  only  a  firm  and  wise  ruler,  favouring 
none,  and  fair  to  all  of  whatever  faith:  He  was  a  daring 
statesman,  who  had  the  first  virtue  of  a  true  ruler,  that  of 
knowing  his  agents  on  the  one  hand  and  his  duty  to  his 
country  on  the  other.  He  sent  away  his  European  troops 
to  Lord  Canning.  And,  whether  against  the  still  unknown 
temper  of  the  sepoys  or  the  mixed  multitude  of  the  capital, 
he  trusted  the  irresponsible  missionary  and  the  responsible 
police  commissioner,  while  he  made  all  proper  military 
arrangements.  Mr.  Forjett  has  lately  told  his  part  of  the 
tale  in  those  exciting  days,  and  with  becoming  modesty  as 
well  as  accuracy.  The  unconscious  testimony  he  bears  to  the 
missionary's  influence  for  good  is  invaluable,  as  coming  from 
such  a  source.1  Dr.  Wilson's  share  was  this. 

The  Mutiny  in  Bengal  was  not  many  days  old  when  the 
Government  of  India  determined  that  the  new  cheap  postal 
and  telegraph  arrangements  should  not  become  the  instru- 
ments of  intrigue.  Accordingly,  all  the  authorities  received 
instructions  to  intercept  native  or  vernacular  letters,  and  to 

1  Our  Real  Danger  in  India.     By  C.  Forjett.     1877. 


1857.]  DECIPHERS  SEPOYS'  TREASONABLE  LETTERS.  507 

forward  them  for  examination  and  translation  by  confidential 
and  skilled  persons  named.  When  found  treasonable  the 
letters  were  submitted  to  the  secretaries  to  Government.  In 
Bombay  letters  so  intercepted  were  sent  to  Dr.  Wilson.  Just 
as  our  beleagured  countrymen  and  countrywomen  in  cities  like 
Lucknow,  and  in  sequestered  hiding-places,  had  recourse  to 
French  and  to  the  use  of  the  Greek  letters  in  their  desperate 
attempts  to  communicate  with  their  friends,  so  the  sepoy  ring- 
leaders resorted  to  all  sorts  of  dialects  and  characters  to  blind 
the  post-office.  No  man  then  in  all  India  was  so  equal  to  their 
resources  as  the  scholar,  who  for  more  than  twenty  years  had 
been  translating  alphabets  and  inscriptions  for  historical  and 
philanthropic  ends.  In  the  last  edition  of  his  lecture  on  the 
"  Eeligious  Excavations  "  he  makes  this  slight  reference  to  a 
confidential  service,  of  a  value  which  no  reward  and  no  honour 
could  adequately  recognise.  Alluding  to  James  Prinsep's 
deciphering  of  the  rock  inscriptions  he  writes  : — 

"  The  key  to  the  character  was  found  by  his  tracing  backwards — 
from  the  current  Devanagaree — various  forms  of  older  letters,  of  which 
the  Nagaree  is  the  maturer  type,  adapted  to  more  rapid  writing  than 
the  original.  Our  own  assurance  respecting  it  was  derived  from  a  com- 
parison of  copperplate  inscriptions  in  the  hands  of  Vishnoo  Shdstree,  in 
which  we  noticed  the  accordance  in  number  and  position  of  certain 
letters  and  words  connected  with  initial  salutations  of  the  gods,  and 
the  royal  signatures  on  other  legible  grants,  which  betokened  an  agree- 
ment in  value  in  the  respective  characters,  as  was  found  to  be  the  case 
when  they  were  critically  examined  and  compared.  By  following  out 
this  principle,  we  were  able  to  make  out  some  of  the  most  difficult 
letters  which  came  into  the  hands  of  our  vigilant  officials  during  the 
late  Mutiny.  We  now  see  very  clearly  that  the  great  trouble  taken 
with  the  adjustment  of  the  cave  character  would  have  been  unnecessary 
if  we  had  noticed  sufficiently  early  its  correspondence  with  the  Phoenician 
and  Greek  alphabets,  from  a  combination  of  which  it  is  manifestly 
derived,  with  most  ingenious  adaptations  to  the  orthoepical  expression 
of  the  Sanscrit  and  other  languages,  most  creditable  to  the  ingenuity  of 
the  Indians,  or  those  by  whom  they  were  adapted  to  these  languages." 

Thus  the  whole  miserable  tragedy  of  the  Mutiny  on  its 


508  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1857. 

western  side  passed  before  Dr.  Wilson,  who,  moreover,  kept 
up  a  close  correspondence  with  the  Governor.  That  was  of 
too  confidential  a  character  for  Dr.  Wilson  to  have  kept  even 
copies  of  it,  but  Lord  Elphinstone's  letters  to  him  reveal  an 
alliance  in  the  interests  of  order,  of  civilisation,  and  of  their 
country's  good,  of  the  highest  honour  to  both. 

Dr.  WILSON  to  his  Sister. 

"  30th  July  1857. — This  mail,  like  some  which  have  preceded  it, 
conveys  very  heavy  tidings  to  Britain.  The  mutiny  and  revolt  of  the 
Bengal  sepoys  still  continues,  and  their  murderous  courses  are  only  be- 
ginning to  be  checked.  Many  of  our  countrymen  —  men,  women,  and 
children — have  been  treacherously  butchered  by  them.  Five  or  six  mis- 
sionaries are  among  the  number  slain.  Among  these,  I  regret  to  say,  is 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Hunter,  of  the  Church  of  Scotland's  Mission  at  Sialkot 
in  the  Punjab  (the  brother  of  Mr.  Hunter  of  Nagpore),  who  was  destroyed, 
along  with  his  wife  and  infant  child,  on  the  9th  of  this  month.  They 
were  in  Bombay  for  a  few  months  before  they  went  to  their  station. 
We  were  acquainted  with  them,  and  liked  them  much.  We  have  not 
heard  of  the  fate  of  two  converts  who  were  with  them.  Their  station 
was  a  new  one,  and  very  distant;  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  they 
went  to  it  before  they  were  more  fully  acquainted  with  the  country 
and  its  languages.  The  whole  of  the  native  army  of  the  Bombay 
Presidency  (as  well  as  that  of  Madras)  has  hitherto  remained  staunch 
to  the  British  interests.  All,  thank  God,  is  very  quiet  in  the  city 
of  Bombay.  So  much  is  this  the  case,  that  at  a  large  meeting  of 
Natives  and  Europeans  held  lately  in  our  Town-Hall,  and  presided 
over  by  the  Governor,  I  offered  to  walk  through  any  of  the  streets  or 
lanes  in  the  blackest  night  without  a  weapon  of  defence.  How  long 
this  security  may  continue  is  dependent  on  the  will  of  a  gracious 
Providence.  A  plot  for  the  murder  of  the  Europeans  is  suspected  to 
have  been  formed  at  Poona,  but  it  has  been  mercifully  detected. 

"  I  enclose  copies  of  some  hymns  we  have  used  at  a  prayer-meeting 
held  in  Ambrolie  in  connection  with  the  crisis,  and  attended  by  great 
multitudes.  Be  sure  you  let  my  dear  mother  know  that  we  are  both 
quite  well  and  safe  at  present.  I  hope  you  all  pray  for  us  and  for  the 
cause  of  Christ  in  India." 

To  Miss  DOUGLAS. 

"  6th  May  1858. — In  the  pacification  of  India  a  good  deal  remains 
to  be  done,  though  victory,  except  in  incidental  foolish  attacks,  has  in 


1857.]  LOED  ELPHINSTONE  OX  THE  MUTINY.  509 

the  mercy  of  God  always  followed  the  movements  of  our  troops.  The 
Bombay  armies,  both  iu  Eajpootana  and  Central  India,  have  done  all 
that  was  needful  in  these  important  provinces,  and  much  circumscribed 
the  field  of  action.  Sir  Colin.  Campbell  is  very  careful  of  the  lives  of 
his  men,  and  his  plan  is  evidently  that  of  a  gradual  advance.  I  don't 
think  he  will  be  allowed  to  rest  during  the  hot  and  rainy  months.  It 
is  a  great  mercy  that  we  have  been  kept  free  from  alarm  in  Bombay, 
and  that  all  the  plots  in  this  Presidency  have  been  discovered  before 
they  could  be  carried  into  effect.  The  plots  of  the  Satara  and  Kolha- 
pore  nobles  are  of  three  or  four  years'  standing,  and  have  had  no  con- 
nection with  the  Mutiny,  except  in  so  far  as  one  set  of  evil  men  has 
encouraged  another  set  of  evil  men. 

"  You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  the  spirit  of  our  native  Church 
continues  to  be  most  exemplary.  The  young  men  and  others  who 
joined  it  last  year  are  a  great  accession  to  it,  and  all  is  love  and 
harmony  within  its  enclosure." 

LOED   ELPHINSTONE   TO   DE.   WILSON. 

"  Tuesday,  8th ,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAR  Dr.  WILSON. — It  was  very  good  of  you  to  remember 
our  conversation  about  the  wild  tribes  in  the  North  Konkan,  and  I  am 
much  indebted  to  you  for  your  little  volume  on  the  Evangelization  of 
India,  in  which  you  give  an  account  of  these  tribes.  I  have  always 
taken  a  great  interest  in  those  poor  outcasts  of  humanity,  the  aborigi- 
nal tribes  who  are  scattered  throughout  the  peninsula  of  India.  I 
have  received  with  great  regret  very  discouraging  reports  on  the  subject 
of  the  attempts  which  have  been  made  in  this  Presidency  to  raise  them 
a  little  in  the  scale  of  humanity.  I  fear  that  very  little  has  been 
effected  in  this  way,  and  that  we  cannot  hope  for  any  rapid  progress. 
The  best  thing  that  I  have  heard  was  from  Mr.  Mitchell  at  Poona,  that 
the  Mhar  and  Mhang  schools  at  that  place  were  making  great  progress, 
and  that  a  native  had  taken  a  great  share  in  the  work  of  establishing 
and  supporting  them. 

"  Your  account  of  the  feelings  of  the  Mussulman  population  is  very 
satisfactory.  I  have  never  given  in  to  the  idea  of  insurrection  and 
conspiracy  which  seems  to  haunt  many  people.  As  long  as  the  native 
army  are  faithful  there  is  no  fear  of  a  popular  rising ;  and  although 
unfortunately  we  have  had  one  or  two  cases  of  mutiny  in  the  Bombay 
Army,  I  do  not  see  any  signs  of  general  defection.  We  may  now  very 
shortly  expect  to  receive. European  reinforcements,  and  I  hope  that  the 
troops  we  asked  the  Government  of  the  Cape  to  send  us  are  now  close 


510  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1858. 

at  hand.  With  God's  blessing  I  believe  that  we  shall  be  spared  the 
trials  and  calamities  through  which  our  neighbours  have  passed,  and 
I  am  sure  that  we  have  great  reason  to  be  thankful.  I  beg  to  enclose 
a  draft  for  my  subscription  to  the  native  female  school,  and  remain,  my 
dear  Dr.  Wilson,  very  sincerely  yours,  ELPHINSTONE." 

"  I  beg  to  be  kindly  remembered  to  Mrs.  Wilson.  I  shall  not  fail 
to  send  the  Notes  on  the  Maratha  language  to  my  uncle.  He  still 
takes  as  keen  an  interest  in  all  that  is  passing  in  this  country  as  ever, 
but  I  am  afraid  that  he  is  not  much  more  able  to  appreciate  a  critical 
paper  on  the  Maratha  than  I  am  myself  ! " 

"April  29,  1859. 

"MY  DEAR  DR.  WILSON. — I  send  you  Sir  Robert  Hamilton's  memo, 
upon  Tantia  Topey.  It  appears  that  his  father  was  a  follower  of  Bajee 
Rao's,  and  that  Tantia  was  a  playfellow  of  the  Nana's.  Dangan,  who 
has  been  on  General  Mansfield's  staff  in  Oudh,  says  that  they  always 
pronounce  Tantia  Topey's  name  as  Sir  R.  Hamilton  spells  it,  Topye, 
and  that  they  speak  of  Nana  Sahib  as  Nana  Rao. 

"  I  have  just  received  a  telegram  from  Bombay  with  news  from 
England  up  to  the  4th.  It  seems  that  on  that  day  Lord  Derby 
announced  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  in  the  Commons, 
that  as  soon  as  certain  money  bills,  and  bills  connected  with  India, 
were  passed,  it  was  the  intention  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  to 
dissolve  Parliament.  The  foreign  news  does  not  look  pacific,  and  I 
believe  that  soon  India  will  be  the  quietest  place  in  the  world,  though 
we  may  still  have  little  episodes  like  the  Nuggur  Parkur  disturbance 
and  Adil  Mahomed's  party  in  the  Hoshungabad  district. — Believe  me, 
sincerely  yours,  ELPHINSTONE." 

How  accurately  Dr.  Wilson  had  gauged  the  temper  of  the 
various  communities  of  Bombay  was  soon  seen  in  the  united 
and  loyal  movement  which  they  made  on  the  15th  December 
1858,  in  a  public  meeting  summoned  to  consider  the  pro- 
priety of  erecting  an  Economic  and  Natural  History  Museum, 
with  pleasure  gardens,  "  to  be  styled,  in  our  Sovereign's 
honour,  the  Victoria  Museum  and  Gardens,"  presided  over 
by  a  Hindoo  friend  of  Dr.  Wilson,  Mr.  Jugganath  Sunkersett. 
The  united  Hindoos,  Parsees,  and  Muhammadans  determined 
to  show  that  they  appreciated  the  blessings  of  a  just  Govern- 
ment, under  which  the  city  had  risen  in  wealth  and  import- 


1858.]  LOYALTY  OF  BOMBAY  COMMUNITIES.  511 

ance.  The  crowd  raised  fifty  thousand  rupees  on  the  spot. 
But  far  more  important  was  this  language  in  the  mouth  of  its 
chairman :  "  No  Empire  has  been  more  consecrated  by 
time,  none  more  perfectly  consolidated,  none  more  great  in 
intellect,  more  overwhelming  in  power,  more  infinite  in 
resources ;  and  yet  it  is  not  on  its  awful  might  that  it  is 
founded,  nor  on  the  force  of  its  naval  and  military  greatness, 
but  supremely  in  the  devotion  of  its  people."  Not  a  few  at 
the  Mohurrum  festival  of  1857  had  distrusted  the  Muham- 
madans  alone,  and  the  police  commissioner  summoned  a 
meeting  of  the  leaders,  at  which  we  meet  for  the  first  time 
in  this  history  with  the  name  of  one  who  had  become  second 
only  to  Dr.  Wilson  in  his  identification  with  the  interests  of 
the  natives  of  Bombay.  Dr.  George  Birdwood,  now  C.S.I., 
and  his  father  General  Birdwood,  had  early  come  under  Dr. 
Wilson's  influence ;  and  at  this,  as  in  all  other  movements 
for  the  good  of  the  natives,  that  young  member  of  the  Medical 
Service,  and  Professor  in  the  Grant  Medical  College,  was 
prominent.  Even  the  Wahabee  Kazee,  or  high  priest  of 
the  Bombay  Muhammadans,  offered  his  services  to  keep  the 
peace,  while  the  chief  native  officer  of  police  was  a  Wahabee. 
When  the  clever  detection  of  the  plot  of  the  sepoys  of  the 
Bombay  garrison  at  Sonapore,  to  rise  and  proclaim  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Nana  as  Peshwa  of  the  Dekhan,  took 
place,  and  the  mutineers  were  blown  from  guns,  all  fear  of 
even  a  local  riot  was  passed.  In  Lord  Elphinstone's  opinion, 
Bombay  city  saved  Poona  and  Hyderabad,  and  even  Madras. 
So  did  Nagpore,  and  it  must  not  be  forgotten  how  well 
Madras  did  its  duty  to  the  empire  by  its  European  troops 
under  Neill,  although  the  family  system  and  evil  arrange- 
ments as  to  its  native  officers  had  long  demoralised  its  sepoy 
army  as  a  fighting  and  disciplined  force.  While  in  Bengal 
there  was  only  one  white  soldier  to  twenty-five  sepoys  in 
May  1857,  the  proportion  in  Madras  was  one  to  seventeen, 


512  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1858. 

and  in  Bombay  one  to  ten,  and  in  the  last  many  sepoys  were 
Jews  and  Christians. 

"  Shall  there  be  evil  in  a  city  and  the  Lord  hath  not  done 
it  ?  "  were  the  words  of  Amos  from  which  Dr.  Wilson  lectured 
to  the  whole  Christian  community  of  Bombay,  in  a  sermon 
afterwards  circulated  all  over  the  country  under  the  title  of  The 
Indian  Military  Revolt  viewed  in  its  Religious  Aspects.  The 
calm,  impartial,  native-loving  evangelist  looked  beyond  the 
passions  the  crimes  and  the  follies  of  the  time,  and  depre- 
cated "  that  indiscriminate  party  and  personal  inculpation 
to  which  many  are  too  prone  to  resort  in  these  sad  days  of 
trouble  and  rebuke."  These  were  the  warnings  he  uttered, 
against  an  under-estimate  of  the  Christian  and  an  over- 
estimate of  the  Gentile  character  so  common  among  Euro- 
peans in  India  and  at  home ;  against  Caste,  the  great  evil ; 
against  "  hedging  up  any  bodies  of  our  servants  or  sub- 
jects in  India  from  general  enlightenment  and  Christian 
instruction ; "  against  "  shortcomings  in  the  supervision, 
discipline,  and  employment  of  (fur  native  army  and  native 
officials  ; "  against  a  defective  Christian  example  on  our  own 
part ;  against  failure  "  in  enterprises  of  Christian  beneficence, 
and  in  works  calculated  to  promote  the  advancement  of  Euro- 
pean civilisation  ; "  against  forgetfulness  of  our  dependence  in 
a  heathen  land  on  the  subduing  and  restraining  grace  of  God  ; 
and  against  the  danger  of  remaining  without  a  personal 
interest  in  the  salvation  of  Christ.  Still  better  was  his 
sermon  on  the  General  Thanksgiving-day  on  the  prophet 
Ezekiel's  message — "  Ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord, 
when  I  have  wrought  with  you  for  my  name's  sake."  The 
events  of  two  years  had  developed,  the  Empire  had  been 
proclaimed,  and  the  preacher  found  these  eight  causes  for 
gratitude — the  close  of  such  a  war ;  its  restricted  limits  ;  the 
marvellous  supply  of  a  military  and  civil  agency  for  the  sup- 
pression of  anarchy  ;  the  safety  of  Western  India  ;  the  stead- 


1859.]       THE  MUTINY  AND  THE  CONSCIENCE  OF  ENGLAND.        513 

fastness  of  the  native  Church,  even  to  martyrdom;  the 
administrative  reforms  ;  the  lessons  to  the  natives  themselves  ; 
and  the  increased  zeal  in  Great  Britain  for  their  good.  Dr. 
Wilson,  like  all  observers  on  the  spot  who  knew  the  facts, 
made  this  admission-^"  Our  highest  civil  authorities  were 
asleep  when  the  catastrophe  happened."  Lord  Canning's 
own  confession  of  his  fatal  mistakes,  especially  that  of  not 
disarming  the  Dinapore  sepoys  and  so  precipitating  the 
horrors  of  Cawnpore  and  delays  of  Lucknow,  is  sufficient. 
But  the  incapacity  of  his  paralysed  advisers  bore  the  one 
good  fruit  on  his  part  of  an  apparently  calm  clemency,  even 
in  the  face  of  the  five  stern  Acts ;  and  Dr.  Wilson  noted  with 
satisfaction,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  C.  Eraser  Tytler,  C.S.,  that  the 
first  Sabbath  after  the  proclamation  of  the  Empire  "  both 
Lord  and  Lady  Canning  sent  a  contribution  to  the  missions 
at  Allahabad,"  where  the  first  Viceroy  of  the  Crown  then  was. 
A  little  later  he  wrote,  "  So  they  have  at  last  got  hold  of  Tatya 
'  Topi ' — Tokya,  I  think  it  will  prove  to  be,  for  I  know  some 
of  his  family,  as  I  opine,  at  Toka  on  the  Godavery." 

The  events  of  1857  awoke  the  conscience  of  the  English 
in  India  and  at  home.  Governors  like  John  Lawrence,  and 
the  Punjab  school  whom  he  had  reared,  became  puritans 
almost  of  a  Cromwellian  stamp,  in  such  public  minutes  as 
that  from  his  pen  which  reviewed  the  relation  of  our  Govern- 
ment to  Christianity.  The  present  Lord  Kinnaird  had  headed 
an  association  to  bring  about  the  public  and  emphatic 
recognition  of  the  duty  of  the  Government  of  India  to  vindi- 
cate its  character  as  a  Christian  administration.  When  asked 
to  join  in  this  movement  Dr.  Wilson's  broader  knowledge 
and  truer  comprehension  of  the  position  led  him  to  return 
this  answer :  While  approving  of  the  object  he  pronounced 
the  movement  inexpedient,  because  it  was  better  to  act  on 
the  indisputable  fact  that  the  British  Government  in  all  its 
dependencies  is  Christian,  than  to  make  a  mere  avowal 

2L 


514  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [I860. 

founded  on  the  apprehension  that    the   Indian   authorities 
questioned  this.     Writing  on  the  19th  May  1860,  he  said  : — 

"  1.  What  we  ought  to  do  is  to  assail  every  act  done  contrary  to  our 
constitutional  standing  when  it  occurs.  We  are  stronger,  I  conceive, 
in  our  defiance  of  all  parties  violating  our  constitution  than  we  should 
be  after  the  most  forcible  declaration  of  duty,  which  might  give  rise  to 
the  surmise  that  we  had  doubts  of  the  tenableness  of  our  own  position  till 
its  principle  be  reasserted. 

"  2.  Notwithstanding  all  the  sins  and  shortcomings  of  the  British 
Government  in  India,  it  has  not  yet  ventured  to  question  in  any 
categorical  form,  'the  right,  privilege,  and  duty  of  every  Christian 
to  support  and  promote  the  Christian  religion,  or  directly  called  upon 
any  Christian  subject  of  the  British  Crown  to  relinquish  his  Christian 
rights  and  privileges/  I  do  not  see  the  propriety  of  our  insinuating 
that  it  has  in  any  general  form  denied  the  existence  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  here  referred  to,  however  inconsistently  it  may  have  acted 
on  particular  occasions  with  the  existence  of  these  rights  and  privileges. 

"  3.  The  Government  of  India  has  done,  and  dare  do  nothing  to 
prevent  its  Christian  servants  giving  their  private  funds  to  religious 
societies.  An  attempt  to  do  something  like  this  by  the  Directors  of  the 
East  India  Company  proved  abortive.  In  the  face  of  Lord  Ellenborough 
we  find  all  the  religious  Societies  in  India  getting  their  usual  open 
support  from  Government  officials,  even  of  the  highest  standing — as  for 
example  Lord  Elphinstone,  who  was  the  official  Patron  of  the  Bombay 
Bible  Society,  and  in  his  own  name  a  contributor  to  all  the  Episco- 
palian, Presbyterian,  Congregational  and  Lutheran  Missions  in  our 
neighbourhood.  No  officials,  as  far  as  I  know,  have  been  challenged  for 
acting  in  their  private  capacity  in  our  evangelistic  committees  for  visit- 
ing and  examining  our  mission  schools,  or  of  late  years  for  speaking  on 
religious  subjects,  or  distributing  bibles,  books,  or  tracts.  An  unneces- 
sary limit  seems  to  have  been  hinted  at  in  connection  with  the  attendance 
of  officials  at  native  baptisms,  but  better  seek  to  remove  this  limit  on 
its  individual  demerits  by  discussions  in  Parliament  and  other  appli- 
ances, than  to  assail  it  by  a  Declaration  embracing  principles  which  are 
yet  unchallenged.  Even  as  matters  stand  it  is  just  as  likely  that  the 
Government  will  take  no  more  notice  of  the  attendance  at  native 
baptisms  as  that  any  real  Christian  official  will  neglect  to  attend  them 
(when  Christian  expediency  requires  him  to  countenance  them)  because 
of  the  partial  restriction  of  Government. 

"  4.  A  Bill  is  at  present  before  the  Legislative  Council,  the  object  of 
which  is  to  free  the  officials  of  Government  from  taking  any  part  as 


I860.]  LORD  CANNING  AND  TOLERATION.  515 

such  in  the  management  of  Hindoo  and  Muhammadan  endowments. 
It  may  be  better  to  watch  this  bill  than  to  seek  subscriptions  to  a 
document  embracing  with  various  other  matters  the  principle  on 
which  it  is  founded." 

Lord  Canning  had  called  on  Mr.  E.  N.  Gust,  then  a  high  civil 
officer  in  the  Punjab,  for  an  explanation  of  his  presence  at  the 
baptism  of  a  sepoy,  and  had  effectually  stopped  the  work  of 
inquiry  in  the  loyal  regiment  of  Muzbee  or  low-caste  Sikhs. 
But  these  proved  to  be  the  last  flickerings  of  a  spirit  of 
antagonism  to  liberty  which  was  more  ignorant  or  timid  than 
it  was  malicious.  The  battle  for  full  toleration  and  equity, 
begun  when  Dr.  Wilson  landed  in  Lord  William  Bentinck's 
time,  was  near  its  close,  and  such  an  association  as  that  pro- 
posed would  only  have  postponed  that  close  by  unnecessarily 
rousing  antagonisms. 

Besides  the  Vernacular  Education  Society,  the  special 
efforts  of  the  Bible,  Tract,  and  great  Missionary  Societies, 
and  the  establishment  of  an  American  mission  in  Oudh,  as 
the  results  of  the  Mutiny,  the  most  important  and  permanently 
fruitful  enterprise  was  that  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Scotland.  Dr.  Wilson  had  by  himself,  or  by  the  agents 
he  stimulated,  seen  the  whole  field  of  western  and  central 
India,  from  Bombay  to  Kathiawar  and  Sindh,  and  from  Satara 
to  Nagpore,  mapped  out  by  the  church,  while  to  Mesopotamia, 
Arabia,  Abyssinia,  and  eastern  Africa,  the  divine  message  had 
sounded  out.  He  had  in  desire  long  before  taken  possession 
of  Rajpootana,  and  now  he  sent  his  brother  Kirk  in  Scotland 
thither.  This  was  for  him  the  outcome  of  the  Mutiny,  the 
atonement  alike  for  the  dark  ignorance  that  prompted  and 
the  swift  vengeance  that  overtook  its  leaders. 

At  the  close  of  1858  the  Eev.  Dr.  Somerville,  foreign 
secretary  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church — which  repre- 
sents the  earlier  seceders  from  the  Established  Kirk,  as  the  Free 
Church  consists  of  the  later — along  with  Mr.  Cooper,  his  old 


516  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [I860. 

colleague  in  the  Konkan,  who  had  become  minister  of  Fala, 
turned  to  Dr.  Wilson  for  advice  and  help  in  the  projected 
mission  to  Rajpootana.  The  case  was  just  that  of  the  Irish 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Kathiawar  over  again.  Once  more 
Dr.  Wilson  expressed  his  "  peculiar  pleasure,"  and  his  grati- 
tude to  God  that  this  work  was  to  be  done  at  last.  With 
Eajpootana  as  a  mission  field  only  three  others  could  be 
compared,  he  wrote  on  the  3d  March  1859 — the  Muhammadan 
state  of  the  Nizam,  and  the  Maratha  principalities  of  Sindia  and 
Holkar,  which  shut  in  Eajpootana  to  the  south.  But  to  their 
claims  of  area,  population,  spiritual  destitution  and  influence 
on  others,  Rajpootana  added  the  advantage  of  a  central  field 
more  directly  under  British  rule  at  that  time,  while  it  was  in 
the  line  of  Presbyterian  missions  in  the  west  and  north-west  of 
India  "  among  whom  the  most  friendly  relations  and  co-opera- 
tions, if  not  absolute  union,  at  no  distant  day  will  doubtless 
exist."  The  English  fear  of  the  hot  winds  he  met  in  his  own 
pleasant  way,  by  declaring,  from  his  experience,  that  they  are 
not  particularly  unhealthy  or  restrictive  of  missionary  labour : — 

"  The  late  Archdeacon  of  Bombay,  Mr.  Jeffreys,  whom  Mr.  Cooper 
must  well  remember,  used  to  say  to  the  ladies  complaining  of  the  Indian 
climate, '  Heat  you  must  have.  But  you  may  be  either  stewed  or  grilled 
as  you  like.  If  you  wish  to  be  stewed  just  remain  in  Bombay,  if  you 
wish  to  be  grilled  go  to  Goojarat  or  the  Dekhan.'  Mr.  (now  Bishop) 
French,  of  Agra,  when  in  my  house  the  other  day  (he  is  on  his  way  to 
Europe),  incidentally  said  to  me,  '  I  have  sometimes  thought  of  going 
to  Ajiner  from  Agra  to  pass  the  hot  winds.'  The  convalescent  station 
of  Mount  Aboo  is  accessible  to  the  invalids  of  Eajpootana  seeking  to 
avoid  them.  General  Low,  whom  you  mention  with  much  satisfaction, 
is  a  party  from  whom  you  get  every  valuable  information  respecting 
Rajpootana.  Independently  of  his  opinion,  I  had  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  two  of  your  first  missionaries  should  be  settled  at  Beawur, 
both  from  the  influence  of  that  place  on  the  whole  of  Rajpootana,  as 
the  general  seat  of  the  political  agency,  and  from  the  opportunity  which 
it  will  give  the  mission  of  acting  on  an  interesting  aboriginal  tribe,  the 
Mers  (Mairs),  of  whom  you  will  find  full  information  in  a  work  of 
Colonel  Dixon." 


I860.]  THE  UNITED  PRESBYTERIAN  MISSION.  517 

Then  follow,  in  this  and  the  subsequent  correspondence, 
exhaustive  details,  topographical,  political,  historical,  and 
ethnological,  regarding  the  Eajpoots  and  their  country.  The 
twenty  years'  work  of  the  mission  which  he  established  at 
Beawur,  side  by  side  with  administrative  progress  and  the 
annual  extension  of  railways  and  roads,  have  since  incor- 
porated the  wild  States  and  warlike  princes  of  the  deserts, 
hills,  and  small  cities  of  Eajastan,  in  one  now  civilised  terri- 
tory. Dr.  Wilson's  letters  remain  a  proof  of  his  uncon- 
querable zeal,  rare  self-denial,  and  statesmanlike  breadth  of 
view,  which,  in  language  most  creditable  to  it,  the  Church 
he  assisted  again  and  again  strove  to  acknowledge. 

The  Eev.  Messrs.  Williamson  Shoolbred,  M.A.,  and  Steel, 
able  students  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh  in  their  day,  were 
the  two  missionaries  sent  forth  as  pioneers.  Dr.  Wilson  had 
urged  their  arrival  at  Bombay  in  October,  that,  going  with 
them,  he  might  introduce  them  to  the  Maharaja  of  Jodhpore, 
the  first  king  in  point  of  importance  in  Eajpootana,  whose 
acquaintance  he  had  made  in  Goojarat  in  1840,  and  who  had 
often  referred  to  the  intercourse  since  ;  as  well  as  to  Sir  George 
Lawrence,  the  Governor-General's  agent,  who  had  there  suc- 
ceeded his  lamented  brother  Sir  Henry.  We  leave  Mr. 
Shoolbred  to  describe  his  intercourse  with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wil- 
son in  the  tour  which  they  made  together  by  sea  to  Surat, 
and  thence  for  thirty  marches  to  Beawur,  during  which,  at 
Erinpoora,  Mr.  Steel  died,  as  Mr.  Ker  had  done  under  similar 
circumstances  in  Kathiawar : — 

"From  the  end  of  October  1859,  till  the  middle  of  March  1860, 
we  were  thrown  constantly  together.  As  Dr.  Wilson  moved  among  the 
elite  of  the  European  society  of  Bombay^  or  was  honoured  in  the  bril- 
liant receptions  of  native  princes,  or  mingled  among  the  crowds  in  the 
native  bazaars,  or  gathered  the  village  peasantry  around  him  that  he 
might  tell  them  of  a  Saviour  ;  in  the  house  and  by  the  way,  in  bright 
drawing-rooms  and  dingy  dak  bungalows,  in  health  and  in  sickness, 
I  had  abundant  opportunities  of  observing  and  admiring  the  true 


518  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [I860. 

Christian  gentleman  and  devoted  missionary  of  the  Cross.  In  those  days, 
before  railways  were  known  or  dreamt  of  in  Rajpootana,  we  made  the 
long  journey  from  Surat  to  Beawur  on  horseback  or  bullock-cart.  This 
in  itself  involves  an  amount  of  hardness  and  roughness  which  often 
severely  tries  the  patience  and  ruffles  the  temper  even  of  the  most 
amiable  of  men.  But  these  trials  were  greatly  intensified  during  that 
sad  journey  by  the  illness  and  death  of  my  colleague,  Mr.  Steel, 
which  protracted  the  journey,  and  shed  the  deepest  gloom  over  the 
most  of  its  hours.  In  these  trying  circumstances,  however,  the  true 
nobility  of  his  character  only  shone  more  clearly  out.  Never  do  I 
remember  his  temper  to  have  been  ruffled  or  his  patience  to  have  given 
way.  His  own  and  his  dear  wife's  deep  sympathy  with  the  sufferer, 
and  the  affectionate  kindness  with  which  they  watched  over  and 
nursed  him,  could  scarcely  have  been  surpassed  by  his  own  parents' 
loving  care.  All  that  their  great  kindness  and  cheering  presence  was 
to  me  in  that  hard  beginning  of  my  missionary  career  I  would  vainly 
strive  to  express.  What  struck  me  most  in  Dr.  Wilson's  character  was, 
perhaps,  the  rare  blending  of  deep  scholarliness  with  the  utmost  buoy- 
ancy, almost  boyishness,  of  heart.  On  the  literature,  philology,  and 
ethnology  of  India,  he  was  a  perfect  mine  of  learning,  and  delighted  to 
pour  out  his  treasures  in  the  most  lavish  way  into  the  ear  of  a  sympa- 
thising listener.  But  such  was  the  fresh  buoyancy  of  his  nature  that  a 
string  of  pleasantries  and  puns  would  succeed  a  deep  disquisition  on 
some  obscure  philological  point,  just  as  the  lights  and  shadows  chase 
each  other  across  the  summer  hills.  I  remember  his  winding  up  an 
interesting  account  of  the  geology  of  Elephanta  by  placing  in  my 
hand  what,  but  for  its  lightness,  I  would  have  deemed  a  specimen  of 
conglomerate  rock  ;  and  then,  after  enjoying  my  puzzled  look,  laugh- 
ingly informing  me  that  it  was  a  piece  of  Scotch  plumcake  as  it 
appeared  after  the  long  voyage  to  India.  Conversations  on  graver 
matters  at  the  breakfast-table  were  now  and  again  relieved  by  showers 
of  linguistic  puns.  Punning  on  the  Marathee  names  for  butter,  honey, 
and  sugar,  he  would  smilingly  ask,  '  Isn't  it  a  strange  thing  that  people 
in  India  eat  muck  and  mud  on  their  bread,  and  sweeten  their  tea  with 
misery  ? '  And  then,  when  it  came  to  the  desert,  and  attention  was 
called  to  the  large  pamalo  (a  species  of  shaddock)  forming  the  centre 
dish,  he  would  propound  the  conundrum,  '  Why  is  the  pamalo  like 
William  the  Third  of  England  ? '  To  which  came  the  obvious  answer, 
'  Because  it  is  the  Prince  of  Orange.'  Thus,  too,  on  the  journey,  many 
a  trying  and  anxious  moment  was  relieved  by  little  pleasantries  that 
flowed  spontaneously  from  the  depths  of  a  simple  and  loving  heart, 


I860.]  SECOND  TOUR  IN  RAJPOOTANA.  519 

which,  long  contact  with  the  world  and  knowledge  of  men  had  failed  to 
rob  of  its  fresh  boyishness. 

"  His  devotion  to  archaeological  studies  was  very  great,  and  he 
never  missed  an  opportunity  of  prosecuting  them.  I  remember  his 
relating  how,  when  eager  to  visit  the  interior  of  a  famous  Hindoo 
temple,  he  had  been  almost  foiled  by  the  Brahman  in  charge  having 
insisted  on  his  taking  off  his  boots  ;  and  how  he  had  surmounted  the 
difficulty  by  getting  the  Brahman  to  carry  him  through  the  temple  on 
his  back  for  a  consideration,  and  how,  as  he  lingered  longer  than  his 
sacred  '  beast  of  burden '  bargained  for,  and  the  bearer  complained  of  his 
increasing  weight,  he  easily  coaxed  him  into  setting  him  down,  boots 
and  all,  on  the  holy  pavement,  and  was  allowed  unmolested  to  pursue 
his  archaeological  inquiries  to  a  close. 

"  On  our  journey  up  country  when  we  arrived  at  the  ancient  town 
of  Sidhpore,  one  of  the  Hindoos'  sacred  places  of  pilgrimage,  his  eager- 
ness to  visit  the  shrines  was  irrepressible.  He  would  scarcely  wait  till 
our  early  dinner  was  over,  and  while  the  sun  was  still  high  and  hot  he 
hurried  me  off  with  him  to  the  town.  With  characteristic  self-forget- 
fulness  he  would  have  exposed  himself  and  me,  unprotected,  to  the 
fierce  sunshine,  had  not  Mrs.  Wilson,  with  her  ever  watchful  care,  fur- 
nished us  with  umbrellas,  and  insisted  on  our  using  them.  The  eager 
archaeologist  climbed  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  steps  leading  to  the 
shrines  with  an  alacrity  that  put  to  shame  his  younger  companion,  and 
sent  my  pulse  up  to  fever  point.  Through  the  long  afternoon  and 
evening  he  dragged  me  from  shrine  to  shrine,  examining,  inquiring, 
and  as  often  informing  those  whom  he  questioned,  and  finished  up  by 
gathering  round  us  a  great  crowd  in  the  bazaar,  and  for  a  full  half-hour 
preaching  to  these  dark  idolaters  Christ  the  Saviour,  with  a  power  and 
fervour  which  his  previous  labours  seemed  to  have  left  wholly  unex- 
hausted. 

"  And  this  leads  me  to  speak  of  the  admirable  balance  in  Dr. 
Wilson's  character,  which  ever  kept  him  from  sinking  the  missionary 
in  the  man  of  science,  or,  in  his  omnivorous  eagerness  in  the  pursuit  of 
knowledge,  from  forgetting  the  still  higher  and  nobler  work  of  the 
Christian  missionary — the  enlightening  and  saving  of  heathen  souls. 
I  had  been  delighted,  while  in  Bombay,  to  see  him  with  his  students 
in  the  Institution,  pouring  out  to  them  the  treasures  of  his  almost  ex- 
haustless  knowledge,  and  seeking  earnestly  to  lead  them  to  the  foot  of 
the  Cross.  Chiefly  had  I  been  touched  by  seeing  how  he  moved 
among  the  members  of  his  Native  Church,  and  was  looked  up  to  by 
them  as  a  dear  and  loving  father,  to  whom  they  could  come  with  all 


520  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [I860. 

their  griefs  and  troubles,  ever  sure  of  warm  sympathy,  consolation,  and 
aid.     No  less  was  I  delighted  on  the  journey  by  his  constant  devoted 
labours  as  an  evangelist.     Whether  in  the  Raja's  palace  or  beside  the 
village  well,  to  prince  and  peasant  alike,  he  eagerly  seized  every  oppor- 
tunity of  speaking  a  word  for  'Christ.     And  I  was  ever  and  again  con- 
strained to  admire  the  ease  with  which  he  adapted  his  addresses  to  the 
character  of  his  audience,  and  the  readiness  with  which  he  won  their 
attention  and  in  many  cases  enlisted  their  sympathies  in  favour  of  his 
message.     And  here  I  would  note  another  contrast  in  his  character,  no 
less    striking   than   that   to   which  I  have    already  called    attention. 
As  a  writer  or  speaker  of  English  Dr.  Wilson  was  apt  to  be  somewhat 
stiff  and  stilted.     His  style  was  heavy  and  his  periods  Johnsonian.     For 
this  reason  he  was  less  effective  as  an  English  preacher  than  his  richly 
varied  knowledge  and  great  ability  ought  to  have  made  him.     Judging 
of  his  power  to  persuade  solely  from  his  English  style,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  Dr.  Norman  Macleod  gave  expression  to  the  opinion, 
that  even  a  century  of  such  preaching  would  fail  to  make  converts. 
But  had  the  genial  Doctor  understood  the  Indian  vernacular,  and  heard 
Dr.  Wilson  preach  in  that,  he  would  have  found  reason  not  only  to 
modify  but  reverse  his  judgment.     As  a  vernacular  preacher  he  was 
simple,  direct,  and  effective.     Even  with  my  imperfect  knowledge  of 
the  language  in  those  days,  I  felt  this,  and  could  note  the  effect  which 
he  produced  in  winning  the  attention,  and  not  rarely  even  the  sympa- 
thies of  his  audiences.     During  the  whole  journey,  so  long  as  he  could 
make  himself  understood  in  Hindostanee,  he  continued  to  preach  in  the 
towns  and  villages  through  which  we  passed  ;  and  it  was  only  when, 
after  penetrating  into  Marwar,  he  found  the  people  with  their  uncouth 
dialects  unable  to  understand  him,  that  he  was  reluctantly  obliged  to 
desist.     His  journal  of  the  tour  will  show  how  eagerly  he  then  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  the  dialectic  varieties  of  the  Marwaree,  so  as  to 
form  the  key  to  its  mastery.     But  his  evangelistic  efforts  were  not  con- 
fined to  these  more  public  ministrations.     He  no  less  eagerly  seized 
every  opportunity  while  conversing  with  individual  natives  of  turning 
the  conversation  on  Christ  and  His  Gospel.     With  our  small  guard  of 
Sikh  cavalry,  and  specially  with  their  bright  and  intelligent  Naik, 
during  many  a  long  and  weary  march  he  kept  up  the  most  lively  and 
interesting  conversations  on  religion  as  he  walked  his  little  hill  pony 
beside  their  tall  and  imposing  chargers.     It  was  his  delight  to  draw 
them  out  about  their  sacred  Granth  and  its  tenets,  and  to  show  the 
more  excellent  way  and  sure  salvation  which  Christ  offers  to  all  who 
come  to  him  by  faith. 


I860.]          UNITED  PKESBYTERIAN  MISSION  ESTABLISHED.  521 

"  In  his  whole  character  and  conduct  indeed,  he  seemed  to  me  the 
beau  idtfal  of  a  Christian  missionary — uniting  in  one  the  scholar,  the 
gentleman,  and  the  evangelist,  and  consecrating  all  his  scholarship,  his 
great  acquirements,  his  knowledge  of  men  and  of  the  world,  to  the 
cherished  and  absorbing  work  of  commending  his  Lord  and  Master  to 
the  hearts  and  consciences  of  men.  Like  the  great  Apostle  of  the 
Gentiles  he  was  willing  to  become  all  things  to  all  men,  if  by  any 
means  he  might  win  some. 

"  I  have  already  spoken  of  the  great  kindness  and  comfort  minis- 
tered by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson  to  my  lamented  colleague  so  long  as  he 
lived,  and  to  myself.  In  like  manner  I  could  speak  at  great  length  of 
his  most  valuable  services  in  introducing  me  to  my  future  field  of 
labour  at  Beawur ;  and  in  breaking  up  and  smoothing  my  path  by  his 
most  judicious  and  valuable  advice  and  counsel.  But  feeling  that  I 
have  already  unduly  extended  my  notice,  I  must  forbear.  I  would 
only  add  that  the  true  breadth  of  the  great  man's  nature  came  out 
while  initiating  an  English  service  at  Beawur.  Finding  that  the  greater 
number  of  English  residents  at  the  station  were  Episcopalians,  he  at 
once  arranged  that  their  wishes  should  be  met  by  the  commanding 
officer's  reading  the  Church  of  England  Service,  while  the  missionaries' 
should  comprise  a  brief  Presbyterian  service,  with  preaching  at  its 
close.  He  himself  began  this  mixed  service,  which  has  been  found 
to  work  admirably  for  many  years.  I  shall  ever  cherish  the  memory 
of  Dr.  Wilson  as  one  of  the  greatest  and  best  of  men  and  missionaries. 
I  regard  his  loss  with  all  the  greater  regret  that  such  a  combination  of 
high  qualities  as  he  presented  is  singularly  rare,  and  that  with  him,  I 
fear,  has  passed  away  the  last  of  a  noble  type  of  Christian  missionary." 

The  opening  of  a  Christian  Mission  among  the  caste-bound 
and  native  tribes  of  Eajpootana  seemed  to  some  in  India  a 
delicate  experiment  just  after  the  Mutiny,  and,  indeed,  as  its 
fruit.  But  Sir  George  Edmonstone,  then  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  the  North- Western  Provinces  of  which  Ajmer  was  a  part, 
did  not,  demi-officially  through  Sir  George  Couper,  his 
secretary  and  now  his  successor,  do  more  than  write  thus  of 
the  missionaries,  after  recommending  Nusseerabad  instead  of 
Beawur  as  their  head-quarters  : — "  These  gentlemen  cannot  be 
interfered  with,  and  all  that  can  be  done  is  to  beg  them  to  be 
undemonstrative  in  their  operations ;  to  refrain  from  declaring 


522  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1860. 

that  they  are  there  with  the  purpose  of  converting  any 
particular  tribe;  and  generally,  to  exercise  their  functions 
unobtrusively  and  with  discretion."  This  called  forth  from 
Dr.  Wilson  an  expression  of  "  due  appreciation  of  the  kind 
consideration  in  which  the  communication  originated,"  his 
reasons  for  preferring  Beawur,  and  a  reply  to  the  doubtless 
unconscious  and  certainly  well-meant  attempt  of  the  officials 
to  smuggle  the  mission  into  the  province.  These  hints,  he 
wrote,  would  meet  4with  the  respectful  attention  of  Mr.  Shool- 
bred  and  those  who  might  join  him,  but  "  their  evangelistic 
commission  is  to  all  classes  of  the  people,  whom  it  is  their 
admitted  duty  to  conciliate  and  not  unreasonably  to  offend, 
even  while  they  stand  on  the  basis  of  that  religious  toleration 
and  civil  protection  which  are  extended  to  all  classes  of 
religionists  in  this  country  both  in  profession  and  in  prose- 
lytism."  Dr.  Wilson  had  fought  for  this  freedom,  and  had 
purchased  it  with  the  great  price  of  thirty  years'  toil,  and  the 
Mutiny  had  confirmed  the  expediency  as  well  as  justice  of  the 
claim.  Colonel  Eden  was  officiating  for  Sir  George  Lawrence 
at  the  time,  March  1860,  or  no  such  correspondence  would 
have  taken  place  probably.  It  has  proved  to  be  the  last  of 
the  kind  even  in  Native  States.  But  cities  like  Hyderabad, 
Indore,  and  Gwalior  are  still  without  missionaries,  although 
the  Eev.  Narayan  Sheshadri  has  a  prosperous  mission  at 
Jalna,  in  the  Nizam's  country,  and  L>.  Valentine  has,  like  Dr. 
Boughton  at  the  court  of  the  Emperor  Shah  Jehan,  used  the 
physician's  art  for  still  nobler  ends  in  the  court  of  Jeypore. 

How  baseless  were  even  the  lurking  relics  of  apprehen- 
sion in  the  Lieutenant-Governor's  letter  was  soon  proved  by 
the  princes  of  Eajpootana  and  Indore  themselves,  in  the 
avidity  with  which  they  sought  Dr.  Wilson's  presence  and 
the  honour  with  which  they  received  the  great  missionary 
and  his  wife.  We  supplement  the  gaps  in  his  journal  of  this 
tour  by  the  letters  of  Mrs.  Wilson,  who  was  foremost  in  all 


I860.]  AGAIN  BEFORE  THE  GAIKWAR  OF  BARODA.  523 

the  toil  of  a  journey  of  1500  miles  by  bullock  cart,  half  of  it  in 
the  hot  season,  and  in  all  the  tender  solicitude  of  watching  by 
the  dying  bed  of  Mr.  Steel.  At  Baroda  the  Gaikwar,  Khunde 
Eao,  whose  brother  and  successor  was  recently  banished  by 
Lord  Northbrook,  was  most  complimentary  to  Dr.  Wilson  at 
a  private  audience,  especially  on  the  many  books  the  mission- 
ary had  written,  which  his  Highness  pronounced  as  "  works  oi 
great  difficulty."  Dr.  Wilson  made  vain  attempts  to  induce 
the  Gaikwar  to  found  a  secondary  school  in  his  capital,  and  a 
system  of  primary  schools  throughout  the  State. 

Mrs.  WILSON  to  her  Sisters,  tlie  Misses  DENNISTOUN. 

"...  All  the  leaders  and  gentlemen  at  Baroda  kindly  called  for 
us,  and  we  spent  a  pleasant  evening  with  the  Resident,  Major  Wallace, 
whom  we  had  formerly  known  in  Bombay.  My  husband  had  an  interest- 
ing interview  with  the  Gaikwar,  and  presented  him  with  a  copy  of  the 
Bible,  after  directing  his  attention  to  some  of  the  important  truths  con- 
tained in  it.  He  also  advised  him  to  establish  schools,  and  to  encourage 
education  among  his  subjects.  He  replied,  that  they  had  no  desire  for 
learning.  I  fear  he  does  not  set  them  a  good  example,  as  his  chief 
pleasure  is  in  looking  at  wrestling  and  wild  beasts  fighting.  To  his  last 
wrestler  he  lately  gave  a  lakh  of  rupees  (<£l  0,000)  !  The  translator  to 
his  Highness  was  formerly  a  pupil  of  our  Institution  in  Bombay,  and 
another  old  pupil  is  instructing  his  brother  in  English,  and  also  teach- 
ing an  English  school  under  the  auspices  of  the  chaplain.  These  two 
young  men  were  delighted  to  see  us,  and  were  very  useful  to  us.  The 
latter  took  us  out  in  one  of  the  Gaikwar's  carriages  to  see  his  country 
palace.  It  is  a  small  bungalow  in  the  midst  of  a  large  garden.  The 
house  is  full  of  very  handsome  carved  furniture,  the  walls  are  covered 
with  mirrors  and  splendid  lamps,  and  there  is  a  most  extraordinary 
collection  of  nick-nacks  from  Paris,  such  as  musical  boxes  and  clocks, 
with  singing  birds  and  dancing  figures,  and  many  other  curious  things." 

DR.  WILSON'S  JOURNAL. 

"  9th  February  1860. — My  chief  missionary  labours  under  this  date 
have  been  of  a  conversational  character,  and  principally  directed  to 
visitors  from  the  camp  at  this  place  of  the  Jodhpore  Legion,  the  horse- 
men of  which,  who  are  mostly  Sikhs  from  the  Punjab,  understand 
Hindostanee  pretty  well,  though  few  of  them  are  able  to  read  it.  Some 


524  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [I860. 

moonshees  and  others  I  have  supplied  with  tracts  and  copies  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  colporteurs  have  visited  several  of  the  neigh- 
bouring villages  ;  but  having  no  books  in  the  language  of  the  province 
— the  Marwaree — they  have  not  been  very  successful  in  the  disposal  of 
their  stores.  On  Sabbath  the  22d  January,  after  preaching  in  Hindo- 
stanee  and  Marathee  to  our  servants  and  others,  I  baptized  in  the  open 
air  a  Brahman,  from  the  Himalaya  mountains,  near  Kangra,  named 
Chinturam.  This  young  man,  of  twenty-three  years  of  age,  has  accom- 
panied us  from  Bombay,  where,  for  a  year  and  a  half  residing  in  the 
General  Assembly's  Institution,  he  had  enjoyed  the  public  services  of 
our  Mission.  He  was  educated  through  the  Hindostanee,  both  in 
Government  and  Mission  schools  (those  of  the  Church  of  England  and 
American  Presbyterians  in  the  North -Western  Provinces),  and  has 
considerable  intelligence.  On  the  cruel  murder  by  the  mutineers  of 
the  Kev.  Mr.  Hunter  and  Mrs.  Hunter,  at  Sialkot,  where  they  had 
been  founding  a  mission  in  connection  with  the  Established  Church  of 
Scotland,  he  attached  himself,  from  motives  of  benevolence,  to  a  con- 
vert who  had  accompanied  them  thither,  and  assisted  in  reconducting 
him  to  Bombay,  where  he  (Chinturam)  was  very  anxious  to  make  my  per- 
sonal acquaintance,  on  account  of  the  impression  which  the  perusal  of  my 
Exposure  of  Hindooism  in  Hindee  had  made  on  his  mind  in  his  first 
religious  inquiries.  He  left  Bombay  with  us,  desiring  to  make  a  pro- 
fession of  Christianity  in  his  native  country  ;  but  quickened  by  the 
divine  word  which  he  had  often  heard  from  my  lips  on  this  journey,  he 
found  that  he  could  no  longer  delay  publicly  espousing  the  cause  of  the 
Lord.  I  have  a  high  opinion  of  his  Christian  character. 

"  JODHPORE,  1 5th  February. — This  Marwar  is  the  darkest  province 
of  India  in  which  I  have  ever  been  ;  and  greatly  is  it  to  be  regretted 
that  it  has  never  hitherto  been  visited  by  any  missionary  of  the  Cross. 
I  saw  much  of  a  fearful  and  obscure  character  at  Palee,  its  commercial 
capital,  and  here,  at  its  political  capital,  I  find  matters  in  a  most  extra- 
ordinary position  both  religiously  and  socially.  The  Maharaja  Tukht 
Singh  (whom  we  saw  at  Ahmednuggur  in  1840)  is  giving  me  a  most  kind 
reception,  and  has  appointed  a  grand  durbar  on  my  account  this  even- 
ing, at  the  close  of  which  Mrs.  Wilson  and  I  start  again  for  Palee,  which 
through  relays  of  bullocks,  furnished  us  by  the  Raja,  we  hope  to  reach 
to-morrow  forenoon,  though  the  distance  over  sandy  roads  is  forty-two 
miles.  Captain  Nixon,  the  Political  Agent,  is  absent  investigating  a  case 
of  Traga  (S.  Tyaga),  in  which  a  Charana  has  killed  his  mother,  to  bring 
her  blood  in  a  local  quarrel  upon  an  opposing  party  ;  but  we  are  most 
kindly  treated  by  Mrs.  Nixon,  with  whom  we  are  staying.  Yesterday 


I860.]  THE  LEARNED  BKAHMANS  OF  RAJPOOTANA.  525 

I  spent  many  hours  with  the  learned  men  of  the  durbar.  The  chief 
Brahman  is  positively  like  another  Sayana  Acharya,  interpreting  the 
Vedas  by  the  ancient  helps  to  their  understanding.  The  chief  Charan 
has  mastered  the  Mahabharata  and  all  the  local  chronicles  of  the  Raj- 
poots, on  which  Colonel  Tod  drew  so  copiously  and  credulously.  Both 
these  worthies  think  that  Hindooism  (as  ' prophesied')  is  nearly  at  its 
end.  The  blood  of  all  the  princes  they  held  to  be  corrupted  by  unholy 
matrimonial  alliances,  and  a  departure  from  the  established  .institutes  of 
their  faith.  Their  achara  they  consider  worse  than  that  of  Soodras  (low 
castes).  They  are  in  possession  of  rich  literary  treasures,  grammatical 
and  expository,  of  which  Europeans  have  yet  heard  nothing.  They  were 
very  much  interested  in  the  sketch  I  gave  them  of  the  European  in- 
vestigation of  the  Vedas,  and  allowed  that  it  explains  much  which  they 
had  observed,  while  it  leaves  many  difficulties  (principally  founded  on 
the  erroneous  idea  of  the  '  eternity '  of  the  Vedas)  unsolved.  A  report 
of  all  that  passed  between  us  on  Hindooism  and  Christianity  would  fill 
a  number  of  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator.  I  see  that  the  Maharaja 
has  a  very  difficult  part  to  play  in  the  midst  of  the  various  powers  by 
which  he  is  surrounded.  '  Non-interference '  has  hitherto  been  the 
cruel  and  unjust  maxim  of  the  British  Government  with  the  Rajpoot 
States.  It  is  perfectly  incompatible  with  our  guarantee  to  preserve  the 
internal  peace  of  the  provinces.  Its  corollary  is  '  Safe  Tyranny.' " 

Mrs.  WILSON  to  her  Sisters. 

"  AMBROLIE,  BOMBAY,  llth  April  1860. — You  will  be  thankful  to 
hear  that,  through  the  goodness  of  God,  we  have  reached  our  home  in 
safety  after  a  most  fatiguing  journey.  We  left  our  kind  friends  at  Beawur 
on  the  evening  of  the  9th  March  for  Nusseerabad,  where  we  stayed  for  two 
days,  and  on  the  12th  left  by  bullock  train,  via  Indore,  Malligaum,  etc. 
The  advantage  of  this  train  is  that  you  can  get  changes  of  bullocks 
every  six  or  eight  miles,  which  enables  you  to  get  over  the  ground 
more  rapidly  than  by  daily  stages  of  ten  or  twenty  miles  with  the  same 
bullocks  as  we  used  to  travel.  Our  desire  was  to  get  home  as  soon  as 
possible,  though  the  fatigue  should  be  greater,  but  I  should  not  like  to 
do  it  again  in  similar  circumstances,  as  it  was  too  trying  for  my  dear 
husband.  We  could  not  get  a  spring  cart,  and  were  obliged  to  travel 
in  a  common  village  cart,  with  a  roof  of  bamboos,  and  covered  with 
carpets,  in  which  we  had  to  lie  by  day  and  night,  as  the  roof  was  too 
low  for  us  to  sit  up. 

"  Between  Neemuch  and  Mhow  there  are  no  traveller's  bungalows, 
nor  any  place  of  shelter,  so  for  some  days  we  just  halted  for  some 


526  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [I860. 

hours  in  the  middle  of  the  day  under  some  trees,  for  a  little  rest  and 
refreshment,  quite  in  gypsy  style.  When  we  got  to  Mhow  we  hoped 
to  get  a  more  comfortable  cart ;  and  we  got  one  much  larger  and  higher 
in  the  roof,  but  it  was  made  of  iron,  and  was  very  rough,  and  the  noise 
it  made  was  something  fearful.  Sleep  in  it  was  impossible,  and  Dr. 
Wilson  got  quite  knocked  up  and  had  a  good  deal  of  fever  during  the 
last  ten  days  of  the  journey.  I  wonder  how  I  stood  it  so  well,  for  I 
could  sleep  neither  by  day  nor  by  night,  and  the  heat  was  great,  in  the 
day  time  from  95  to  104°,  with  a  high  scorching  wind,  blowing  up 
the  dust  in  tornadoes,  and  making  us  as  black  as  sweeps.  We  travelled 
in  this  way  about  700  miles,  and  the  Lord  in  His  great  mercy  brought 
us  here,  in  peace  and  safety,  on  the  evening  of  the  5th.  The  last 
forty  miles  of  our  journey  was  by  the  railway,  and  when  we  got  into  it 
the  change  was  most  agreeable  and  soothing  to  the  brain,  and  to  our 
bones,  which  had  been  sorely  shaken  for  three  weeks. 

"  We  got  to  Neemuch  on  1 6th  March,  and  spent  two  days  with 
friends  ;  on  Sabbath  my  husband  conducted  worship  in  the  library. 
There  is  neither  a  church  nor  a  chaplain  there,  though  the  European 
troops  amount  to  fully  1500.  It  is  very  sad  to  see  so  many  large 
stations  without  any  means  of  grace.  Our  next  halting-place  was 
Indore,  where  we  spent  two  days,  chiefly  with  Sir  Eichmond  and  Lady 
Shakespeare.  They  are  very  kind,  good  people.  On  the  afternoon  of 
Friday  there  was  a  grand  durbar  held,  when  Holkar  had  the  right  of 
adoption  granted  to  him,  and  he  was  presented  with  some  handsome 
presents  by  the  Government  for  his  fidelity  during  the  Mutiny.  (He 
was  true  to  the  British,  though  his  loyalty  was  rather  doubtful  at  the 
time.)  Dr.  Wilson  had  some  conversation  with  him,  but  of  course  that 
was  not  the  time  nor  the  place  for  any  religious  discussion.  When  we 
were  preparing  to  leave  next  day  Holkar  sent  a  very  urgent  request 
that  my  husband  should  meet  him  in  the  afternoon  at  his  country 
palace,  as  he  was  most  anxious  to  see  him  again,  and  he  offered  to  send 
us  on  to  Mhow  in  the  evening  in  his  carriage  with  changes  of  horses. 
Dr.  Wilson  was  delighted  to  have  an  opportunity  of  presenting  him 
with  a  copy  of  the  Bible  and  other  books,  and  of  conversing  with  him 
on  the  Christian  religion.  I  had  intended  to  sit  in  the  carriage  in  the 
garden  of  the  palace  during  the  interview,  but  Holkar  very  politely 
sent  for  me,  and  begged  of  me  to  sit  down  beside  himself  and  all  the 
learned  Brahmans,  whom  he  had  assembled  to  have  a  discussion  with 
the  learned  Doctor  from  Bombay. 

"Holkar  is  a  pleasant  looking  man  about  thirty,  he  was  quite 
plainly  dressed,  but  wore  some  handsome  jewels.  He  sat  in  a  chair  at 
the  end  of  a  long  table.  At  one  side  sat  his  prime  minister,  then  Dr. 


I860.]  BEFORE  THE  MAHARAJA  HOLKAR.  527 

Wilson  and  myself,  and  some  of  his  courtiers.  On  his  other  side  sat 
a  row  of  learned  Pundits  and  Brahmans,  who  had  been  called  together 
for  the  occasion.  At  Holkar's  request  Dr.  Wilson  and  they  entered 
into  a  discussion  on  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindus  and  other  kindred 
subjects.  They  got  quite  frightened  when  my  husband  repeated  some 
Sanscrit  quotations,  and  when  they  saw  how  well  prepared  he  was  to 
argue  with  them,  and  to  point  out  the  absurdities  of  their  system. 
Holkar  and  some  others  who  were  present  seemed  to  enjoy  their  dis- 
comfiture. We  proceeded  to  Mhow  in  his  carriage  (fourteen  miles), 
where  we  arrived  late  at  night,  and  were  kindly  received  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Paton.  They  were  quite  strangers  to  us  ;  he  is  the  chaplain  to  the 
72d  Highlanders,  he  is  of  the  Established  Church,  and  had  lately 
married  a  lady  from  Edinburgh.  We  spent  two  days  with  them  very 
pleasantly.  He  seems  to  be  a  good  man,  and  well  suited  for  the  work 
to  which  he  has  been  called.  At  six  o'clock  on  Sabbath  morning  Dr. 
Wilson  preached  to  about  800  soldiers  and  officers.1 

"  Our  next  Sabbath  was  spent  at  Malligaum,  where  my  dear 
husband  was  very  poorly,  but  he  was  able  to  take  the  Marathee  service 
in  a  schoolroom  at  the  request  of  the  missionaries  of  the  Church 
Mission,  two  of  whom  are  stationed  there.  We  reached  home  on  the 
following  Thursday  evening,  when  we  received  such  a  warm  welcome 
from  the  dear  converts  and  others  as  quite  affected  us.  Their  faces 
beamed  with  delight  on  seeing  us  restored  to  them  after  so  many  trials  ; 
and  we  felt  truly  thankful  to  be  reunited  to  them.  We  feel  the  soft 
sea  breeze  very  pleasant,  and  my  dear  husband  is  gradually  recovering. 
He  is  very  busy  preparing  his  reports  to  go  by  this  mail  for  the  General 
Assembly. 

"  Our  good  friends  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Miller  leave  this  evening  by  the 
home  mail.  We  shall  miss  them  very  much.  He  has  been  appointed 
as  elder  to  the  Assembly,  and  I  hope  whilst  he  is  at  home  he  may  be 
of  use  to  our  mission.  There  was  a  large  meeting  here  last  evening,  a 
farewell  party  to  the  Millers — there  were  at  it  about  thirty  Europeans 
and  a  number  of  converts.  After  tea  an  address  from  the  native 
cliurch  to  them  was  read  by  Mr.  Dhunjeebhoy,  expressing  their  gratitude 
for  Dr.  Miller's  medical  aid  extended  to  them,  and  for  many  other  acts 
of  kindness  and  sympathy,  and  they  presented  him  with  a  very  hand- 
some Bible,  and  Mrs.  Miller  with  Cowper's  works." 

Dr.  WILSON  to  Dr.  EDDOWES. 

" .  .  .  .  We  were  often  as  much  covered  with  dust  on  the  road  as 

1  He  had  preached  to  the  same  72d  Highlanders  at  Cape  Town  in  1823. 


528  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [I860. 

the  sweeps  with  soot  in  chimneys  in  my  young  days.  Yet  we  had  some 
pleasant  interludes  by  the  way,  as  at  Chittor,  Neemuch,  Jawara,  Indore, 
etc.  The  Nawab  of  Jawara,  and  Holkar,  and  their  people,  I  found  very 
inquisitive  on  the  subject  of  religion,  as  I  had  found  some  other 
Rajas.  Nothing  would  satisfy  Holkar  but  a  long  and  formal  discussion 
between  his  Brahmans  and  myself.  He  acted  as  chairman,  and  that 
in  an  impartial  spirit.  At  the  close  he  said  to  Mrs.  Wilson,  who 
was  accommodated  near  the  arena,  '  I  shall  never  forget  this  day  ; 
I  have  got  much  new  light  to-day.'  He  was  evidently  much  dis- 
appointed by  the  appearance  made  by  the  Brahmans.  They  put  several 
questions  to  me,  which  the  Maharaja  declared  to  be  inept  ;  and  he 
himself  took  their  place,  boldly  asking,  l  Why  do  you  kill  animals  ? ' 
My  answer  was  in  substance  as  follows  : — '  Maharaja,  that  is  a  question 
for  yourself  as  well  as  for  me.  You  kill  all  sorts  of  clean  animals  for 
food,  except  cows.  For  the  same  reason  that  you  kill  fowls,  goats, 
sheep,  etc.,  I  kill  cows,  getting  suitable  food  from  them  not  forbidden 
by  God.  I  admire  the  Sanscrit  language.  The  best  word  for  man  in 
it  is  manushya,  which  means  l  lie  that  has  a  mind!  The  word  for  cattle 
is  pashu  (Latin,  pecu\  '  that  which  may  be  tied.'  Man  is  an  intellectual 
and  moral  being,  created  for  the  service  of  God  ;  cattle  are  created  for 
the  service  of  man.  The  Vedas  show  that  the  ancient  Hindus  ate 
them,  and  you  may  eat  them  too.  Death  is  not  to  them  what  it  is  to 
us.  Even  the  pain  which  they  suffer  at  death  by  violence  may  be  very 
slight.  Dr.  Livingstone,  when  he  was  overpowered  by  a  lion,  from  a 
sort  of  electrical  excitement  which  he  experienced  suffered  no  pain.' 
'  Yes,'  said  the  Maharaja,  '  the  question  is  my  own,  and  you  have  given 
a  good  answer  to  it.  I  am  always  troubled  by  my  friends  opposite.' 
I  attribute  all  the  scrupulosity  about  the  use  of  animal  food  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Hindus  about  birth  after  birth.  I  think  it  would  have 
done  the  heart  of  some  of  our  more  timid  Politicals  good  to  have  seen 
all  these  go  off  in  good  temper  on  both  sides." 

Not  the  least  service  done  by  Dr.  Wilson  to  the  United 
Presbyterian  Mission  was  that  of  making  over  to  it  the  con- 
vert Chinturam.  Soon  after  lie  received  in  Bombay,  and  sped 
on  their  way,  the  first  detachment  of  colleagues  for  Mr.  Shool- 
bred — Dr.  Kobson,  and  Mr.  Martin. 

But  the  new  or  extended  agencies  of  the  Churches  of  Great 
Britain,  the  United  States,  and  Germany  fell  short  in  far-reach- 
ing consequences  of  the  catholic  system  of  public  instruction 


1857.]          EDUCATION  MADE  CATHOLIC  BY  MISSIONARIES.          529 

which  was  legislatively  established  in  1857.  That  system 
was  directly  the  work  of  the  missionary  party.  It  was,  and 
is  still,  the  result  not  of  a  compromise  but  of  co-operation 
between  the  Government  or  secular  State  and  all  non-govern- 
ment or  proselytising  bodies,  Heathen  and  Christian,  who 
choose  to  give  a  sound  education  to  the  people  in  addition  to 
any  religious  instruction  of  which  the  State,  as  the  ruler  of 
millions  of  men  of  differing  creeds,  cults,  and  customs,  can 
officially  take  no  cognisance  at  this  stage.  The  State,  how- 
ever, does  not  ignore  natural  or  even  revealed  religion.  But, 
calling  Universities  into  existence,  and  placing  them  under 
an  executive  largely  separate  from  itself,  the  Government  at 
once  puts  the  higher  education  in  its  proper  place  of  self- 
developing  independence,  and  it  provides  bodies  competent 
to  examine  students  of  all  the  great  religions,  as  they  appear 
in  the  literature,  the  philosophy,  the  history,  the  laws,  and 
in  fact  the  sacred  books  of  each.  Questions  long  discussed 
in  the  Christian  Parliament  of  the  mother  country,  and  not 
concluded  even  yet  for  Ireland,  were  in  185*7,  under  far 
more  conflicting  circumstances,  settled  for  ever  on  the  true 
basis  of  complete  toleration,  and  fearless  confidence  in  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  truth.  And  the  men  who  brought  that 
about  were  John  Marshman,  heir  of  the  Serampore  men; 
Alexander  Duff ;  and  John  Wilson. 

Everywhere  in  India  the  East  India  Company  first  refused 
to  teach  or  to  tolerate  teachers,  and  when  compelled  by 
Parliament  under  the  influence  of  Charles  Grant,  Wilberforce, 
and  Zachary  Macaulay,  taught  Hindooism  and  Muham- 
madanism  only,  while  intolerant  to  all  dissent  from  either. 
By  1835  Dr.  Duff,  Macaulay,  and  the  Anglicists  under  Lord 
William  Bentinck,  gradually  changed  that  in  Eastern  and 
Dr.  Wilson  in  Western  India.  But  till  1854  these  and  other 
educational  reformers  were  discouraged  by  Government,  as 
such,  because  they  were  also  Christian  proselytisers.  The 

2  M 


530  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON  [1857. 

Government  and  the  independent  systems  of  public  instruc- 
tion went  on  side  by  side.  All  the  public  money  was  given 
to  the  former  which  was  neutral  only  in  profession  and 
Hindoo-Muhammadan  in  practice,  the  latter  being  main- 
tained by  the  Churches  of  the  West  so  far  as  it  was  Christian, 
and  by  a  few  educated  native  gentlemen  so  far  as  it  was 
aggressively  Hindoo.  When  in  1853  the  Company  applied 
to  Parliament  for  what  proved  to  be  its  last  charter,  the 
evidence  given  by  most  of  the  experts,  and  especially  by  Dr. 
Duff  and  Mr.  Marshman,  showed  the  folly  of  the  rivalry  on 
every  side — of  principle,  of  even  secular  efficiency,  of  economy. 
Lord  Northbrook,  accordingly,  when  private  secretary  to  the 
present  Lord  Halifax  who  was  then  President  of  the  old 
Board  of  Control,  drafted  a  despatch  from  all  the  evidence, 
and  also  from  the  notes  of  Dr.  Duff;  and  the  Court  of  Directors 
sent  that  out  to  Lord  Dalhousie,  with  instructions  to  carry  it 
into  effect.  That  Governor-General,  who  had  been  helping 
Mr.  Thomason  with  his  thousands  of  primary  circle  schools 
in  Upper  India,  and  was  maintaining  the  Bethune  girls'  school 
out  of  his  own  pocket,  was  delighted  with  this  despatch  of 
July  1854.  At  the  foundation  it  placed  vernacular  schools 
for  the  millions,  and  then  a  secondary  and  partly  English 
school  in  every  district  or  county.  Then  it  recognised  exist- 
ing colleges,  State  and  independent,  Hindoo,  Muhammadan, 
and  Christian,  Parsee  and  East  Indian ;  offering  grants  in  aid 
to  all  on  the  test  of  secular  efficiency,  while  maintaining  its 
own  until  endowed,  or  independent  but  aided  effort  -as  in 
England,  could  relieve  it  of  the  burden  of  direct  teaching. 
The  whole  arch  was  bound  together  by  the  three  Universities  of 
Calcutta,  Bombay,  and  Madras,  chiefly  examining  bodies  like 
that  of  London,  but  fitted  to  have  Chairs  of  their  own  in 
tune,  as  some  now  have.  The  Senate  of  each  consisted  of 
worthy  representatives  of  all  educational  agencies,  of  whatever 
creed.  The  Syndicate  or  executive  body  appointed  by  the 


1857.]  THE  EDUCATION  DESPATCH  OF  1854.  531 

Arts,  Law,  Medical,  and  Engineering  Faculties  of  the  Senate, 
regulated  the  whole  education  of  the  country  by  fixing  stand- 
ards and  text-books,  and  selecting  the  examiners  for  degrees. 
Theoretically  the  scheme  was  perfect. 

Practically  the  new  policy  has  worked  well,  just  because 
men  of  the  wisdom,  experience,  and  tact  as  well  as  principle 
of  Wilson  and  Duff,  were  able  to  preside  at  the  launching 
of  what  they  had  designed.  In  a  letter  to  their  committee 
in  Edinburgh,  written  by  Dr.  Wilson  and  signed  also  by  Mr. 
Nesbit  not  long  before  his  death,  they  reviewed  the  provisions 
of  the  despatch.  Unhappily  the  succession,  as  Governor,  of 
Sir  George  Clerk,  who,  with  all  his  merits  retained  the  Com- 
pany's political  prejudices  against  Christian  missions,  and 
the  action  of  Directors  and  Inspectors  of  Public  Instruction, 
obstructed  the  fair  working  of  the  new  system  of  grants  in 
aid  until  the  appointment  of  Sir  Alexander  Grant  as  head  of 
the  department.  But  that  opposition  was  temporary,  and  it 
did  not  affect  the  more  independent  University  and  colleges. 

"  BOMBAY,  16th  May  1855. — Your  important  letter  on  the  Despatch 
to  the  Government  of  India  on  the  subject  of  Education  was  duly 
received,  and  copies  of  it  have  been  forwarded  by  Dr.  Wilson  to  the 
Dekhan  and  Nagpore.  We  rejoice  to  learn  from  it  that  our  Committee 
at  home  are  disposed  to  concur  in  our  co-operation  with  Government 
in  carrying  its  provisions  into  effect  in  so  far  as  they  may  be  found  to 
apply  to  our  missionary  establishments.  The  issue  of  that  Despatch, 
we  conceive,  constitutes  a  new  and  promising  epoch  in  connection  with 
the  intellectual  and  moral  enlightenment  of  this  great  country.  It 
fully  recognises  important  principles  for  which  we  have  long  and 
strenuously  contended  in  this  Presidency.  It  forms  a  discriminative 
and  judicious  estimate  of  the  comparative  claims  of  the  vernacular  and 
learned  languages  of  India  and  of  English  as  media  of  instruction.  It 
makes  a  very  cordial  acknowledgment  of  the  benefits  derived  by  India 
from  the  missionary  enterprise.  It  makes  the  Bible  accessible  for 
purposes  of  consultation  to  inquisitive  youth  within  the  walls  of  the 
Government  seminaries.  It  permits  the  communication  to  them  at 
extra  hours  of  Christian  instruction,  voluntarily  imparted  and  volun- 


532  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1857. 

tarily  received.  It  promises  certain  grants  in  aid  of  secular  instruction, 
for  certain  definite  objects,  to  all  private  scholastic  institutions  per- 
mitting Government  inspection  and  exacting  a  fee,  however  small,  from 
the  pupils.  It  proposes  the  foundation  of  Universities  at  the  Presi- 
dencies, for  granting  honours  and  degrees  to  India  youth  of  requisite 
attainments.  It  sanctions  the  affiliation  with  these  Universities  of  all 
seminaries  rightly  conducted  and  furnishing  the  requisite  amount  of 
education.  It  has  our  full  approbation  as  far  as  it  goes,  and  we  shall 
rejoice  to  find  its  provisions  speedily  carried  into  effect  in  the  spirit  in 
which  it  has  been  framed. 

"  In  referring  to  the  moral  relations  of  that  Despatch,  we  must 
mention,  what  the  members  of  our  Committee  cannot  have  failed  to 
notice,  that  it  offers  the  same  assistance  in  the  communication  of  sound 
secular  instruction  to  seminaries  founded  and  conducted  on  heathen 
principles  that  it  does  to  those  which  are  founded  and  conducted  on 
Christian  principles.  In  doing  so,  it  does  not  seem  to  us  to  recognise 
any  principle  of  religious  latitudinarianism.  It  simply  offers  to  all  a 
common  blessing,  without  adopting  any  action  with  reference  to 
higher  blessings  on  the  one  hand,  or  to  what  may  prove  an  injury  and  a 
curse  on  the  other.  It  leaves  its  own  expression  of  respect  to  Christian 
institutions  to  remain  unmodified  by  what  it  proposes  to  do  with  refer- 
ence to  those  of  another  character.  Sound  secular  instruction,  imparted 
without  any  ignoring  or  depreciating  of  Christianity,  can  in  no  degree 
favour  heathenism  or  error  of  any  kind.  To  a  certain  extent  it  will  be 
a  counteraction  of  that  error.  The  grants-in-aid  will,  we  hope,  be  so 
administered,  according  to  the  Despatch,  as  to  go  to  the  encouragement 
and  support  only  of  sound  secular  knowledge.  We  do  not  see  that 
such  an  appropriation  of  them  will  increase  the  resources  of  heathenism. 
To  a  certain  extent  it  will  direct  the  native  resources  to  what  is  good, 
as  they  will  be  needed  for  that  effort  which  is  required  to  secure  the 
progress  in  secular  knowledge  which  the  Government  inspection 
demands.  While  we  make  these  remarks,  we  do  not  in  any  degree 
compromise  our  own  views  of  the  supreme  importance  of  the1  combinaT 
tion  of  right  religious  education  and  training  with  secular  instruction. 

"  But  it  is  with  the  probable  effects  of  the  Despatch  on  our 
missionary  undertakings  that  we  have  most  to  do,  though  we  have  con- 
sidered this  reference  to  its  general  moral  bearings  essential  to  our 
judgment  of  its  acceptability  to  the  Christian  community.  It  will  open 
a  wide  field  to  the  operation  of  our  Bible  and  Tract  Societies  and 
missionary  presses.  It  will  call  for  an  increase  of  missionary  agency, 
with  a  view  to  the  hallowing  of  the  secular  instruction  which  it 


1857.]  THE  EDUCATION  DESPATCH  OF  1854.  533 

directly  encourages.  It  will  do  more  than  this.  It  will  aid  the 
missionary  institutions  in  that  department  of  their  labours  which  em- 
braces secular  knowledge.  But  missionaries  and  their  supporters  must 
vow  before  God  and  man  not  to  dilute  or  diminish  their  religious  instruc- 
tion in  their  seminaries  on  this  account.  While,  as  hitherto,  they 
communicate  a  sound  secular  instruction,  they  must  never  fail  to  act 
on  the  principle  of  combining  this  instruction  with  that  of  an  infinitely 
higher  character. 

"  To  Government  inspection,  conducted  as  we  trust  it  will  be  in  a 
courteous,  liberal,  and  impartial  spirit,  we  cannot  object  ;  while  of 
course  we  repudiate  all  right  on  the  part  of  Government  to  interfere 
with  the  management  of  our  seminaries.  Government  is  entitled  to 
see  to  the  faithful  appropriation  of  its  own  educational  grants. 

"  To  the  exaction  of  a  fee  from  such  of  our  pupils  as  may  be  willing 
and  able  to  pay  it,  as  a  condition  of  our  receiving  Government  help,  we 
do  not  object.  In  fact,  in  a  modified  form,  we  have  all  along  acted  on 
this  principle  to  a  certain  extent  in  our  higher  seminary  in  Bombay. 
It  is  our  rule  to  exact  an  admission  fee  of  one  rupee  from  the  pupils 
for  the  reasons  mentioned  at  p.  484  of  Dr.  Wilson's  Evangelization  of 
India.  The  advanced  pupils  generally  aid  us  in  instructing  the  lower 
classes,  partly  in  compensation  for  the  instruction  which  they  them- 
selves receive  in  our  College  Department.  We  are  willing  to  extend 
our  demands  in  that  Institution  and  in  all  our  schools,  without  excluding 
from  their  benefits  any  who  may  be  unable  or  unwilling  to  make  a 
money  payment.  The  evangelistic  feature  of  our  educational  establish- 
ment must  be  preserved.  To  the  poor,  who  are  not  the  least  hopeful 
in  a  missionary  point  of  view,  the  Gospel  must  be  taught  in  all  our 
schools  without  money  and  without  price.  We  are  willing  to  adopt 
the  principle  of  payment,  as  far  as  it  may  be  practicable,  as  a  rule, 
but  we  must  have  full  liberty  to  make  exceptions  whenever  they  may 
be  proper  and  expedient.  We  should  never  be  excused  by  our  own 
consciences,  or  by  our  Christian  brethren  at  home  and  abroad,  were 
we  to  act  otherwise.  We  hope  that  Government  will  give  us  full 
latitude  in  this  matter.  At  all  events,  we  must  follow  in  regard  to  it 
our  own  solemn  convictions.  The  Government,  we  believe,  will  place 
the  charitable  support  which  our  schools  receive  in  the  place,  in  some 
instances,  of  the  fees  which  are  elsewhere  exacted.  It  is  perhaps  not  a 
matter  of  much  consequence  that  all  our  vernacular  schools,  which  are 
almost  wholly  devoted  to  the  communication  of  scriptural  knowledge, 
should  in  present  circumstances  be  connected  with  the  Government 
scheme." 


534  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1857. 

It  was  on  the  18th  July  1857,  in  the  darkest  hour  of  the 
mutiny,  that  the  University  of  Bombay  received  its  charter. 
"We  applaud  the  inhabitants  of  Leyden,  said  Dr.  "Wilson 
afterwards,  when  speaking  as  its  Vice-Chancellor,  who  con- 
certed measures  for  founding  a  University  even  during  the 
terrible  siege  of  their  town  by  the  Spaniards  in  1573,  when 
6000  of  their  number  perished  by  famine  and  pestilence,  and 
who  devoted  to  that  University  the  remission  of  taxes  offered 
them  as  a  reward  for  their  patriotism.  Shall  we,  he  asked, 
withhold  the  meed  of  praise  from  the  Government  of  India  ? 
Fortunately  it  was  to  Lord  Elphinstone,  who,  with  Dr  Wil- 
son's advice,  had  proved  himself  an  educational  reformer  in 
Madras,  that  the  duty  fell  of  organising  the  new  academic 
body. 

LORD   ELPHINSTONE  TO   DR.   WILSON. 

"  MAHABLESHWAR,  2Ist  April  1855. 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  WILSON I  wanted  to  ask  you  if  you  would 

consent  to  be  one  of  the  Senate  of  our  new  University?  You  are 
aware  that  it  is  not  to  be  a  place  of  education,  but  rather  a  body  which 
is  to  examine  the  students  of  other  places  of  education,  and  to  confer 
degrees.  In  fact  it  is  to  be,  I  imagine,  the  touchstone  by  which  the 
teaching  of  the  different  affiliated  Institutions,  and  in  some  measure 
of  all  the  educational  Institutions  in  the  Presidency  is  to  be  tested.  I 
am  most  anxious  that  it  should  have  the  perfect  confidence  of  all  those 
who  are  interested  in  native  education,  and  that  the  Senate  should 
fairly  represent  all  who  are  engaged  or  interested  in  this  great  work. 
With  this  object  in  view  I  trust  that  you  will  not  refuse  to  be  nomi- 
nated to  it.  The  office  is  purely  honorary,  and  need  not  be  in  any 
degree  burdensome." 

«  19th  September  1855. 

"  I  assure  you  that  I  was  very  much  gratified  to  hear  from  you 
that  the  views  I  have  adopted  on  University  matters  are  so  much  in 
accordance  with  your  own.  I  fear  that  I  have  laid  too  little  stress  on 
the  study  of  Sanscrit.  When  I  first  came  to  India,  eighteen  years  ago, 
there  was  a  great  controversy  going  on  between  the  supporters  of  the 
old  system  of  teaching  Sanscrit  and  Arabic  in  the  Government  col- 
leges, and  those  who  thought  that  these  studies  were  useless,  or  even 
worse  than  useless  ;  and  that  European  literature  and  science,  taught 


1857.]         CORRESPONDENCE  ON  THE  BOMBAY  UNIVERSITY.       '535 

through  the  medium  of  the  English  language,  should  take  their  place. 
I  sided  with  the  latter,  though  even  then  I  thought  that  they  went  too 
far  in  insisting  upon  the  English  as  the  sole  medium  of  instruction ; 
but  *  though  I  always  felt  that  the  cultivation  of  the  living  languages 
of  India  was  most  important,  I  am  afraid  that  I  altogether  overlooked 
the  importance,  even  with  reference  to  the  critical  study  and  improve- 
ment of  these  languages,  of  the  Sanscrit.  I  have  just  glanced  over  the 
articles  in  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator,  which  you  have  been  good 
enough  to  send  me,  and  I  feel  that  in  my  ignorance  I  have  not  hitherto 
given  due  weight  to  the  -considerations  which  induce  you  to  recommend 
its  study.  I  must  not  allow  you  to  give  me  credit  which  I  do  not 
deserve.  When  we  were  asked  to  give  our  opinions  upon  these  ques- 
tions I  was  much  at  a  loss,  not  having  been  at  a  University  myself,  and 
not  having  had  any  opportunity  of  considering  them." 

Long  and  detailed  were  the  discussions  of  the  new  Senate 
in  working  out  regulations  for  the  University.  The  share 
which  Dr.  Wilson  had  in  these,  and  the  success  with  which 
he  secured  due  recognition  of  the  Christian  Philosophy  and 
Literature,  side  by  side  with  the  non-Christian,  and  solely  on 
the  ground  of  confidence  in  truth  and  academic  fitness,  is  seen 
in  the  following  extracts  from  letters  to  Dr.  Duff,  who  passed 
through  Bombay  on  his  return  to  Scotland  at  the  close  of  1863. 
Dr.  Wilson  wrote  with  the  experience  not  only  of  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  University,  but  as  a  member  of  Syndicate, 
Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Arts,  and  an  examiner  in  Sanscrit, 
Persian,  Hebrew,  Marathee,  Goojaratee,  and  Hindostanee : — 

"  Had  it  not  been  for  most  strenuous  and  almost  self-destroying 
efforts  and  exertions  which  I  made  from  day  to  day  during  the  first 
discussion  of  the  bye-laws,  there  would  have  been  no  recognition  in 
them,  as  subjects  of  study,  of  Moral  Philosophy,  of  Jewish  History, 
and  of  the  Evidences  of  Christianity  in  the  case  of  undergraduates 
electing  them  ;  and  had  we  not  had  a  good  backing  in  the  addition  to 
the  Senate  in  1864  of  Messrs.  Aitken,  Dhunjeebhoy,  and  Stothert,  I 
verily  believe  that  good  which  has  been  since  effected  in  other  matters 
might  not  have  been  realised.  Our  combined  yet  independent  action 
in  the  frequent  meetings  of  the  Senate  and  in  the  Faculty  to  which  we 
belong,  is  of  a  most  salutary  character,  while,  as  calls  are  made  upon 
us,  we  can  engage  in  the  University  examinations  without  an  inter- 
ruption of  our  mission  work." 


536  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1865. 

"  I  send  you  the  list  of  books  (independent  of  those  mentioned  in 
our  bye-laws),  which  we  have  lately  chosen  in  our  University,  for  a 
cycle  of  five  years  in  advance  of  1870.  You  will  see  from  it  that 
even  in  our  University  studies  there  is  a  good  foundation  for  Christian 
tuition  in  the  case  of  ardent,  judicious,  and  otherwise  competent  mis- 
sionaries. This  remark  has  special  reference  to  the  English  books 
prescribed,  in  connection  with  which  the  truths  of  Christianity  may  be 
easily  and  systematically  taught.  [A  Lecture  which  I  delivered  some 
three  years  ago  on  the  Foundational  Facts  of  Milton's  Paradise  Lost, 
was  attended  by  about  700  students.]  In  our  Sanscrit  course,  till  the 
B.A.  is  passed,  we  have  prescribed  the  Tarkasangraha,  the  fundamental 
treatise  of  the  Nyaya  (the  Theistic  Philosophy  holding,  however,  the 
eternity  of  atoms  formed,  fashioned,  and  directed  by  a  Creator).  The 
same  Philosophy  reappears  in  three  of  the  five  years  in  the  M.A. 
course.  From  the  Vedanta,  which  we  have  admitted  for  two  years,  we 
have  eliminated  the  Brahma  Sutras,  with  the  Commentary  of  that  for- 
midable sophist  Shankaracharya.  The  whole  Sanscrit  course  I  have 
all  along  most  profitably  contrasted  with  Christianity.  Our  Hebrew 
studies,  not  yet  announced  for  the  cycle,  are  from  the  Bible,  which  can 
maintain  its  place  spite  the  Arabic  Koran.  For  our  systematic  Biblical 
reading  and  lecturing  we  can  maintain  a  due  place,  by  insisting  on  the 
conditions  of  our  missionary  Institutions.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  eagerness 
for  graduation  is  a  temptation  to  many  young  men  to  confine  their 
attention  to  the  studies  prescribed  by  the  Universities ;  but  what  would 
be  the  consequence  if,  instead  of  opposing  that  temptation,  we  were  to 
withdraw  from  the  arena?  What  would  soon  be  the  character  of  the 
Universities  themselves  ?  What  would  soon  be  the  state  of  the 

educated  mind  of  India,  which  rules  the  native  world  ?     What ? 

I  may  go  on  for  hours  suggesting  most  lamentable  consequences." 

From  the  first  meeting  of  the  Senate  to  the  last  which  he 
was  able  to  attend,  Dr.  Wilson  guided  the  course  of  the 
University  of  Bombay  with  affectionate  solicitude  and  cul- 
tured catholicity  of  spirit.  When  the  Government  appointed 
the  zealous  Christian  missionary  and  uncompromising  pro- 
selytiser,  Yice-Chancellor,  it  at  once  proclaimed  practically 
the  final  abandonment  of  the  last  relics  of  the  distrust  of 
truth,  and  won  the  applause  of  educated  men  of  all  creeds 
and  races  in  India.  The  Governor-General  had  offered  the 
similar  honorary  but  very  influential  office,  of  virtual  director 


1868.]  NATIVE  BENEFACTORS  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY.  537 

of  the  whole  education  of  millions,  to  the  good  and  the 
scholarly  Bishop  Cotton,  who  too  modestly  declined  it.  Had 
Dr.  Duff  remained  longer  in  India  he  would  have  been 
nominated  by  Lord  Lawrence.  As  Vice- Chancellor  of  Bom- 
bay, when,  in  the  resplendent  robes  of  his  office,  he  took  the 
chief  part  in  the  ceremonial  of  laying  the  foundation-stone  of 
the  University  building  designed  by  Sir  Gilbert  Scott,  he  thus 
chronicled  the  endowments  presented  by  his  native  and  non- 
Christian  friends — endowments  to  be  increased  by  himself  in 
the  foundation  of  the  John  Wilson  Chair  of  Comparative 
Philology. 

"  The  personal  benevolence  which  we  are  required  to  acknowledge 
preceded  that  of  the  Government.  Mr.  Cowasjee  Jehanghier  Ready- 
money  furnished  the  University  in  1863  with  one  lakh  of  rupees  (.£10,000), 
now  very  considerably  increased  by  accumulated  interest,  towards  the 
erection  of  a  University  Hall.  In  1864  Mr.  Premchund  Eoychund 
presented  us  with  two  lakhs  of  rupees  for  the  erection  of  a  Library,  and 
in  the  same  year  with  another  two  lakhs  of  rupees  for  the  erection  of  a 
Tower,  to  contain  a  large  clock  and  a  set  of  joy  bells.  Independently 
of  the  buildings,  several  most  valuable  endowments  have  been  conferred 
on  the  University,  as  Rs.  20,000  in  four  per  cent  Government  securities, 
by  the  Hon.  Munguldass  Nathoobhoy,  for  establishing  a  travelling  fellow- 
ship ;  Rs.  5000  (£500),  by  the  family  of  the  late  Mr.  Manockjee  Limjee, 
for  a  gold  medal  to  be  given  for  the  best  English  Essay  on  a  prescribed 
subject ;  Rs.  10,000  by  Mr.  Bungwandass  Purshotumdass,  for  a  Sanscrit 
scholarship  ;  Rs.  5000  by  Mr.  Homejee  Cursetjee  Dady  Shet,  for  an 
annual  gold  medal  for  the  best  English  Poem  on  a  given  subject  offered 
in  competition  ;  an  endowment  of  six  Sanscrit  scholarships  (three  of 
Rs.  25  each,  and  three  of  Rs.  20  each  per  mensem),  amounting  altogether 
to  Rs.  30,000,  by  Mr.  Yinayekrao  Jugonnathjee  Sunkersett,  in  memory 
of  his  late  father,  the  Hon.  Jugonnath  Sunkersett,  one  of  the  greatest 
supporters  of  education  in  the  Bombay  Presidency  ;  Rs.  4500  by  His 
Highness  the  Jam  of  Nowanuggur,  for  an  English  scholarship  to  be 
held  by  a  native  of  Kathiawar  ;  Rs.  5000  in  four  per  cent  notes,  by 
Mr.  Cowasjee  Jehanghier  Readymoney,  for  founding  a  Latin  Scholar- 
ship ;  and  Rs.  5000  from  the  members  of  the  Civil  Service  and  other 
gentlemen,  for  an  annual  gold  medal,  as  a  prize  in  law,  for  the  com- 
memoration of  the  accomplishments  and  worth  of  the  Hon.  Alexander 


538  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [I860. 

•  Kinloch  Forbes,  Judge  of  the  High  Court,  and  Vice-Chancellor  of  this 
University.  In  all  these  great  and  generous  gifts,  the  liberality  of 
Bombay,  according  to  its  wont,  has  been  most  distinguished  and  ex- 
emplary. 

"  Our  University,  thus  auspiciously  begun,  will,  it  is  confidently 
believed,  continue  to  flourish.  Under  its  direction  and  superintendence 
the  inquisitive  and  ingenious  Indian  youth  may  effectively  study  the 
rich  and  varied  languages,  literature,  history,  and  laws  of  England,  of 
Italy,  of  Greece,  of  Judea,  of  Arabia,  and  of  India  ;  have  his  mind 
disciplined  and  exercised  by  the  sciences  of  mathematical  demonstra- 
tion and  investigation,  and  of  the  dialectic  art  ;  expatiate  in  the  near 
and  remote,  minute  and  grand  regions  of  physical  science  ;  contemplate 
what  are  still  more  wonderful,  the  faculties,  functions,  intuitions,  and 
phenomena  of  the  human  mind  ;  dwell  on  the  moral  relationship  of 
man  to  his  Maker  and  to  his  fellow-creatures  ;  consider  the  economy 
of  social  and  national  Government  in  all  its  connections  ;  prepare  him- 
self for  the  practice  of  the  healing  art,  for  the  administration  of  justice, 
or  for  the  application  of  engineering  in  all  its  departments,  to  the 
necessities,  convenience,  and  gratification  of  the  human  family  ;  and 
train  himself  for  the  discharge  of  the  general  duties  of  life  in  the  most 
varied  circumstances.  Its  influence  on  the  intellectual  and  moral 
state  of  its  alumni  on  their  ultimate  position  in  this  world,  and  on 
their  prospects  with  regard  to  that  which  is  to  come,  may  surely  be 
expected  to  be  beneficial  in  no  common  degree.  It  is  not  merely  with 
its  alumni,  however,  that  it  will  have  to  do.  It  will  affect  through 
them  the  whole  community  of  Western  India,  if  not  of  distant  provinces 
and  countries.  It  will,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  which  we  implore  in 
its  behalf,  be  for  ages  an  eminent  instrumentality  in  the  enlightenment, 
civilisation,  and  regeneration  of  THE  EAST." 

It  was  in  May  1860  that  Bombay  lost  the  services  of  its 
Governor,  Lord  Elphinstone,  who  had  guided  the  province 
through  perilous  times  with  rare  firmness,  wisdom,  and  self- 
sacrifice.  He  died  soon  after,  leaving  a  name  worthy  to  be 
placed  beside  that  of  his  greater  uncle's,  and  perpetuated  by 
more  than  one  institution  and  building  in  the  capital  where 
he  ruled  so  well.  Writing  to  Mr.  C.  Eraser  Tytler,  C.S.,  of 
the  death  of  "our  much  loved  and  honoured  friend,"  Dr. 
Wilson  alludes  to  this  correspondence,  which  has  a  touching 
interest  for  every  scholar  and  Bombay  man: — 


I860.]  DEATH  OF  MOUNTSTUART  ELPHINSTONE.  539 

DR.  WILSON  TO  LORD  ELPHINSTONE  ON  THE  HON.  MOUNTSTUART 
ELPHINSTONE'S  DEATH. 

"DEESA,  Qth  December  1860. 

"  MY  DEAR  LORD  ELPHINSTONE. — I  have  been  very  sorry  to  see  in 
the  papers  which  have  reached  me  at  this  station  this  morning  the 
intimation  of  the  death  of  your  uncle,  the  distinguished  and  venerated 
Mountstuart  Elphinstone.  I  hope  I  am  not  guilty  of  unseemly  in- 
trusion when  I  say  that  I  most  sincerely  sympathise  with  your  Lord- 
ship in  this  bereavement,  which  you  must  keenly  and  deeply  feel,  as 
that  by  which  the  most  endeared  human  sympathy  and  invaluable 
encouragement  and  support,  extended  to  you  from  your  earliest  years, 
are  withdrawn  from  you,  even  when,  by  absence  in  this  remote  land, 
on  account  of  our  national  exigencies,  you  have  been  denied  the  mourn- 
ful satisfaction  of  their  last  expression  to  yourself.  I  do  feel  much  for 
you  in  the  view  of  the  rupture  which  has  been  made  in  the  case  of  the 
tenderest  of  ties,  and  of  the  greatness  of  the  loss  which  you  have 
sustained  ;  and  I  fervently  pray  that  the  God  of  all  grace  may  minister 
to  you  that  resignation  and  consolation  which  are  needful.  They  are 
to  be  found  only  in  the  source  from  which,  I  am  sure,  it  will  be  your 
privilege  to  seek  them — in  the  recognition  of  the  allwise  and  righteous 
sovereignty  of  God  ;  in  the  thankful  admission  of  the  greatness  of  the 
divine  favour  extended  to  yourself,  as  well  as  to  the  public,  for  such 
a  lengthened  period  as  that  for  which  Mr.  Elphinstone  was  spared  after 
his  retirement  from  active  life  in  India  ;  in  the  treasure  of  hallowed 
reminiscences  which  must  ever  remain  with  you  as  the  most  precious 
legacy  of  the  departed ;  in  that  free  access  which  we  all  have  to  the 
peace  and  comfort  vouchsafed  to  us  by  our  merciful  and  faithful  High- 
Priest  ;  and  in  that  salutary  improvement  which,'  by  His  word  and 
Spirit,  we  may  make  of  all  our  trials  and  afflictions. 

"  I  see  from  the  papers  that  Mr.  Elphinstone's  death  was  of  a 
sudden  character,  as  is  often  the  case  with  those  of  his  advanced  years. 
The  calmness  and  peace,  and  peculiar  occupations  of  the  life  which  he 
has  so  long  led  in  his  retirement,  however,  have  been  favourable  to  his 
contemplation  of  those  great  and  abiding  interests  which  are  paramount 
under  our  relationship  to  our  Creator,  Preserver,  and  Redeemer.  I  have 
often  been  struck  with  the  high  moral  tone  of  his  State  papers  and 
publications,  and  with  the  respect  which  he  cherished  and  expressed 
for  the  great  principles  and  ordinances  of  our  holy  faith,  as  contrasted 
with  those  by  which  the  religious  systems  of  India  are  characterised. 
The  subdued  moderation  of  his  desires  for  earthly  fame  and  honour — 


540  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [I860. 

which,  notwithstanding,  will  be  the  position  of  his  memory  in  connexion 
with  the  history  of  India  till  latest  ages — teaches  a  lesson  which  it 
will  be  profitable  to  all  to  learn. 

"  Though — solely  owing  to  his  own  declinature — never  at  the  helm 
of  supreme  power  in  India,  it  will,  I  doubt  not,  be  found  that  in  the 
comprehension  of  the  mind  and  feeling  of  India  ;  in  the  adaptation 
to  the  circumstances  of  this  country  of  public  measures  ;  in  prompt 
but  calm  energy  even  in  troublous  times  ;  in  soundness  of  judgment ;  in 
suavity,  grace,  and  dignity  of  intercommunion  with  Natives  and  Euro- 
pean functionaries  ;  and  in  the  impartiality,  disinterestedness,  benefi- 
cence, and  wisdom  of  administration,  he  was  actually  the  greatest  of 
our  Indian  statesmen.  Comparison  of  him  with  the  great  names  of 
Sir  Thomas  Munro,  Sir  John  Malcolm,  and  Lord  Metcalfe,  is  the  most 
legitimate  ;  and  in  making  this  comparison,  it  will  be  seen  that  in  the 
excellences  now  alluded  to  he  excelled  them  all.  Though  not  to  the 
degree  of  a  Olive,  a  Hastings,  a  Wellesley,  or  a  Cornwallis,  a  founder  of 
our  Indian  Empire,  he  was  eminently  a  confirmer  and  conservator  of 
that  empire,  whose  high  principle  and  meritorious  example  will  be 
respected  and  imitated  the  more  that  they  are  known.  In  point  of 
fact,  he  had  most  to  do  with  the  movements  which  led  to  the  acquisition 
of  the  Maratha  country  ;  and  the  work  of  its  settlement,  so  satisfactory 
and  permanent  (to  the  weal  of  its  people  and  the  peace  of  all  India), 
was  peculiarly  his  own.  His  diplomatic  and  governmental  services, 
with  which  he  may  be  said  to  have  begun  and  ended  his  public  career, 
were  great  successes.  As  a  traveller  he  was  enterprising,  discreet, 
exact,  and  truthful.  As  a  historian  he  will  be  long  valued  for  his 
observation,  research,  judiciousness,  and  faithfulness.  On  reading  his 
History  of  India  one  constantly  feels  that  he  knew  both  the  country  and 
the  people  of  whom  he  writes.  His  own  biography,  appear  when  it 
may,  will  be  an  invaluable  boon  to  our  nation  and  the  civilised  world. 

"  I  am  perhaps  going  wrong  when  I  make  these  remarks  to  your 
Lordship  ;  but  I  know  that  one  of  the  first  effects  of  your  grief  will  be 
that  of  leading  you  to  looking  to  the  excellence  which  is  removed  from 
this  earthly  sphere,  where,  however,  it  is  destined  to  be  ever  remembered. 

"  We  have  been  much  retarded  in  our  journey  to  Rajpootana  by 
the  severe  illness  of  both  the  young  missionaries,  particularly  at 
Kaira  and  this  station.  The  doctor,  however,  has  told  us  that  we  may 
now  move  on  in  a  couple  of  days.  We  expect  to  get  to  the  station  of 
Beawur, where  we  shall  rest  fora  little, in  the  course  of  a  fortnight.  I 
propose  to  visit  from  it  Nusseerabad,  Ajmer,  and  Jodhpore  before 
setting  out  on  my  return  to  Bombay.  The  whole  of  the  country 


I860.]  MOUNTSTUART  ELPHINSTONE'S  PAPERS.  541 

through  which  we  are  passing  is  quiet  and  well  affected  to  the  British 
Government. 

"  Mrs.  Wilson  joins  me  in  the  expression  of  the  deepest  sympathy, 
and  I  am,  my  dear  Lord  Elphinstone,  with  great  regard,  yours  very 
respectfully,  JOHN  WILSON." 

"  BOMBAY,  1 3th  January  1860. — I  feel  very  grateful  to  you  for  the 
sympathy  you  express  upon  the  loss  I  have  sustained  in  my  uncle's 
death.  Of  all  the  men  I  have  ever  known  I  loved  and  respected  him 
the  most.  Upon  all  occasions  of  difficulty  I  looked  to  him  for  counsel 
and  encouragement.  I  was  in  frequent  correspondence  with  him  to 
the  last,  and  I  feel  that  his  place  can  never  be  supplied.  On  the  other 
hand,  although  his  death  was  very  sudden  I  cannot  say  that  I  was 
surprised  at  it.  When  I  came  out  to  India  my  hopes  of  seeing  him 
again  in  this  world  were  very  slight  ;  he  was  then  seventy-four,  and 
his  health  was  always  delicate,  yet  as  years  passed  away,  and  as  he 
continued  to  write  to  me  with  his  usual  vigour  and  interest  in  this 
country,  I  could  not  but  hope  that  I  should  be  permitted  to  see  him 
again  ;  and  as  the  time  of  my  probable  return  approached  this  hope 
grew  stronger.  It  was  with  feelings  of  sorrow  and  disappointment, 
therefore,  rather  than  of  surprise,  that  I  received  the  account  of  his 
death.  There  is,  indeed,  much  for  which  I  can  never  be  sufficiently 
thankful.  In  the  first  place,  that  it  pleased  God  to  allow  my  dear 
uncle  to  retain  the  possession  of  his  intellect  unimpaired  to  the  last. 
Of  all  things  the  saddest  is  to  see  a  great  mind  in  decay,  and  this  trial 
I  have  been  spared  in  his  case.  Then  I  have  every  reason  to  believe 
that  his  death,  though  at  the  last  sudden,  did  not  find  him  unprepared. 
He  made  some  slight  alterations  in  his  will  within  a  month  of  his 
death,  and  a  letter  was  found  with  it  addressed  to  me,  in  which  he  begs 
that  his  papers  may  not  hastily,  or  without  due  reservation,  be  made 
over  to  any  one  for  publication.  All  his  papers  were  found  in  the 
most  admirable  order,  and  I  have  requested  that  they  may  be  kept 
exactly  as  he  left  them  until  I  return.  He  has  remembered  most  of 
his  relations  and  all  his  servants  in  his  will,  and  more  than  one  of  his 
bequests  show  his  delicacy  and  thoughtfulness  towards  others.  He  was 
indeed  one  of  those  who  delighted  in  doing  good  by  stealth. 

"  I  had  written  thus  far  when  I  was  interrupted,  and  I  have  but 
little  time  to  finish  this  letter.  Mr.  Walter  Elliot,  who  went  home  by 
the  last  steamer,  begged  me  to  remember  him  to  you,  and  to  say  how 
much  he  regretted  your  absence.  I  am  happy  to  say  that  he  is  in 
excellent  health  ;  few  people  go  home  after  thirty -nine  years'  service 
looking  so  hale  and  hearty. 


542  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [I860. 

11 1  have  no  doubt  that  your  journey  will  he  one  of  great  interest 
to  you.  I  was  very  much  pleased  with  Ajmer.  There  is  an  old  Jain 
or  Buddhist  temple  turned  into  a  mosque,  which  is  very  curious  ;  the 
outside  is  quite  Mahometan,  and  the  carving  is  very  fine  in  its  way, 
but  the  interior  is  evidently  of  a  different  style,  and  the  lotus  and 
lozenge,  and  bell  and  chain  ornaments  all  belong  to  the  Jains  or 
Buddhists. 

"  I  have  been  reading  a  review  of  two  works,  with  which  I  dare  say 
you  are  well  acquainted,  but  which  were  both  new  to  me — Christianity 
and  Mankind,  by  Mr.  Bunsen,  and  the  History  of  the  First  Three  Cen- 
turies of  the  Clirislian  Church,  by  M.  de  Pressense,  a  French  Protestant, 
and,  I  think,  a  minister.  They  must  both  be  very  remarkable  works,  and 
the  review  of  them  by  M.  Milsand  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  is  well 
worth  reading.  But  I  must  bring  this  letter  to  a  close.  I  beg  you 
once  more  to  accept  my  most  sincere  thanks  for  your  kind  sympathy, 
and  I  must  also  ask  you  to  convey  them  to  Mrs.  Wilson,  with  my  very 
kind  remembrance.  I  hope  that  you  will  both  derive  much  benefit 
and  pleasure  from  your  tour,  and  that  you  will  be  able  to  return  to 
Bombay  before  the  weather  becomes  hot. — Believe  me,  my  dear  Dr. 
Wilson,  yours  most  sincerely,  ELPHINSTONE." 

Very  beautiful  were  the  relations,  of  which  these  glimpses 
have  been  given,  between  the  Governor  and  the  Missionary. 
Good  reason  had  Lord  Elphinstone  to  remark  to  Dr.  H.  Miller 
that  to  no  man  was  he  so  indebted  personally,  for  public  and 
private  services,  as  to  Dr.  Wilson,  on  whom  he  could  not  pre- 
vail to  accept  so  much  as  the  value  of  a  shoe-latchet.  When, 
in  public  meeting,  moving  the  adoption  of  the  farewell  address 
which  the  province  selected  him  to  present  to  the  retiring 
Governor,  Dr.  Wilson  especially  referred  to  his  Excellency's 
"  constant  recognition  of  the  great  principles  of  religious  tole- 
ration and  humanity,"  especially  in  the  suppression  of  hook- 
swinging,  and  in  securing  to  all,  out-caste  as  well  as  Brahman, 
access  to  the  public  wells  and  cisterns. 


CHAPTEE  XVII. 

1862-1865. 

THE  KRISHNA  ORGIES— DR.  WILSON  AMONG  THE  EDUCATED 
NATIVES. 

Brahmanism  opposed  to  Rational  Humanity — The  Stages  of  its  Corruption 
— Krishna  Worship — The  Four  Krishna  Reformers — Young  Bombay — Vallabh 
the  Royal  Teacher  of  Deified  Adultery — Trade  of  Bombay  taxed  for  the 
Maharajas — A  Courageous  Editor — The  Trial — Mr.  Chisholm  Anstey — Dr. 
Wilson's  evidence — Sir  Joseph  Arnould's  Judgment — Public  Opinion — Testi- 
monial to  Kursundas  Mooljee — Advice  to  Hindoos  to  Travel — Sir  Jamsetjee 
Jeejeebhoy's  Benevolent  Institution — Influence  of  Dr.  Wilson  in  Hindoo  and 
Parsee  Families — Rai  Bahadoor  Tirmal  Rao — "Uncle"  Wilson — A  Hindoo 
Lady  learning  to  read  at  Sixty — Intercourse  with  Native  Princes — Raja 
Dinkur  Rao — Prince  of  Johanna — The  Converts'  Address  to  Dr.  Wilson  on 
the  Thirtieth  Anniversary  of  his  Landing — Reviews  his  Missionary  Policy — 
Building  of  the  Native  Church  and  Manse — The  services  and  drowning  of 
Stephen  Hislop. 


"  In  hac  disceptatione  hujuscemodi  ratiocinatio  summam  quaestionis 
absolvit.  Proponunt  Grseci :  Si  dii  tales  colendi  stint,  profecto  etiam  tales 
homines  honorandi.  Assumunt  Romani  :  Sed  nullo  modo  tales  homines 
honorandi  sunt.  Concludunt  Christiani :  Nullo  modo  igitur  dii  tales  colendi 
sunt."  S.  AUE.  AUGUSTINI  :  De  Civitate  Dei. 


"  Primarily  he  attacks  a  flagrant  social  enormity  and  scandal.  For  genera- 
tions the  hereditary  high  priests  of  his  sect  had,  as  he  believed,  committed 
whoredom  with  the  daughters  of  his  people.  Like  the  sons  of  Eli  they  had 
done  this  openly  at  the  gates  of  the  temple — like  the  sons  of  Eli  they  had  done 
this  under  the  pretended  sanction  and  in  the  abused  name  of  religion.  This 
is  the  thing  he  denounces.  It  would  be  a  waste  of  words  to  point  out  that  in 
denouncing  it  vehemently,  bitterly,  indignantly,  he  was  within  the  strict 
limits  of  his  duty  as  a  public  writer.  The  interests  of  society  require  that 
wickedness  such  as  this  should  be  sternly  exposed  and  unrelentingly  hunted 
down.  If  to  write  vehemently,  bitterly,  indignantly,  on  such  a  subject  as 
this  be  libellous,  than  were  the  Prophets  of  old  libellers  ;  then  were  the  early 
Fathers  of  the  Church  libellers  ;  then  have  all  earnest  men  in  all  time  been 
libellers,  who  have  published  to  the  world,  in  the  fit  language  of  generous  in- 
dignation, their  scorn  of  hypocrisy  and  their  hatred  of  vice 

"  It  seems  impossible  that  this  matter  should  have  been  discussed  thus 
openly  before  a  population  so  intelligent  as  that  of  the  natives  of  "Western 
India  without  producing  its  results.  It  has  probably  taught  some  to  think  ; 
it  must  have  led  many  to  inquire.  It  is  not  a  question  of  theology  that  has 
been  before  us  !  it  is  a  question  of  morality.  The  principle  for  which  the 
defendant  and  his  witnesses  have  been  contending  is  simply  this — that  what 
is  morally  wrong  cannot  be  theologically  right  ;  that  when  practices  which 
sap  the  very  foundations  of  morality,  which  involve  a  violation  of  the  eternal 
and  immutable  laws  of  Right,  are  established  in  the  name  and  under  the 
sanction  of  Religion,  they  ought,  for  the  common  welfare  of  society,  and  in 
the  interests  of  humanity  itself,  to  be  publicly  denounced  and  exposed.  They 
have  denounced — they  have  exposed  them.  At  a  risk  and  to  a  cost  which  we 
cannot  adequately  measure,  these  men  have  done  determined  battle  against  a 
foul  and  powerful  delusion.  They  have  dared  to  look  Custom  and  Error  boldly 
in  the  face,  and  proclaim  before  the  world  of  their  votaries  that  their  Evil  is 
not  Good,  that  their  Lie  is  not  the  Truth.  In  thus  doing  they  have  done 
bravely  and  well.  It  may  be  allowable  to  express  a  hope  that  what  they  have 
done  will  not  have  been  in  vain  ;  that  the  seed  they  have  sown  will  bear  its 
fruit ;  that  their  courage  and  consistency  will  be  rewarded  by  a  steady  increase 
in  the  number  of  those  whom  their  words  and  their  examples  have  quickened 
into  thought  and  animated  to  resistance,  whose  homes  they  have  helped  to 
cleanse  from  loathsome  lewdness  and  whose  souls  they  have  set  free  from 
a  debasing  bondage." 

SIR  JOSEPH  ARNOULD  :  Judgment  in  the  Maharaj  Libel  Case. 


1862.]        BRAHMANISM  OPPOSED  TO  RATIONAL  HUMANITY.        545 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE  late  Canon  Mozley,  a  Christian  philosopher  who  has  been 
pronounced,  with  some  justice,  the  Bishop  Butler  of  this  genera- 
tion, published  an  Essay  on  "Indian  Conversion,"  twenty  years 
ago.1  Writing  before  the  comparatively  rapid  development  of 
the  Church  of  India,  the  Protestant  sections  of  which  already 
form  a  varied  community  of  more  than  three  hundred  thousand 
souls,  he  argued,  on  the  ground  of  reason  alone,  that  Brahmanism 
will  be  gradually  but  completely  demolished  by  the  fair  and 
solid  contact  of  Christianity  with  it.  Tor  Brahmanism  is  at 
disagreement  with  the  original  type  of  rational  humanity;  with 
the  religious  type  and  the  moral  standard  in  human  nature ; 
with  physical  truth,  and  with  the  ends  of  society.  Not  less 
convincing  is  the  historical  argument;  and  when  both  are 
looked  at  together  in  the  light  of  time,  as  the  factor  in  the 
world's  changes,  the  conclusion  is  overpowering,  apart  from 
Scripture.  From  the  monotheism  and  nature-worship  of  the 
early  Vedic  hymns  and  Zoroastrian  gathas,  to  the  polytheism 
and  sacerdotal  caste  which  provoked  the  Buddhist  reform, 
what  a  change  !  And  yet  it  is  spread  over,  at  least,  twelve  cen- 
turies. Arrested  for  a  time  by  men  like  Asoka,  the  Brahma- 
nical  corruption  leavened  the  whole  lump  of  Asiatic  life, 
whether  Hindoo  or  Buddhist,  till,  at  the  close  of  the  next 
twelve  centuries,  the  faith  of  Gautama  was  wiped  out  in 
blood  all  over  the  peninsula,  and  only  the  conforming  Jains 
remained  to  tell  of  the  impotence  of  the  creed  that  had  cut  its 

1  Bentley's  Quarterly,  Jan.  1859,  republished  in  his  Essays,  Historical  and 
Theological,  1878,  with  a  Sketch  of  the  lamented  theologian's  career. 

2N 


546  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1862. 

temples  and  monasteries  out  of  the  living  rock,  that  had  sub- 
dued Tibet  and  China,  Burma  and  Ceylon.  Triumphant 
Brahmanism  entered  on  the  third  stage  of  its  descending 
progress  ten  centuries  ago,  with  all  its  evils  intensified,  and 
afterwards  but  little  checked  by  the  iconoclastic  fanaticism  of 
the  Muhammadan  invasion.  Ceasing  to  spread,  save  among 
the  aborigines  it  had  long  scorned,  when  it  did  not  reduce 
them  to  the  worst  slavery,  Brahmanism  was  driven  in  on 
itself.  For  nearly  a  century  it  found  a  protection  alike 
against  Mussulman  intolerance  and  Christian  light  in  the 
encouragement  of  the  East  Indian  Company,  which  Charles 
Grant  and  Wilberforce  first  stopped  by  the  Charter  of  1833. 

After  the  persecution  of  Buddhism  there  arose  the  latest 
development  of  the  Hindoo  system  in  the  worship  of  Krishna. 
Thenceforth  Brahmanism  was  to  act  on  the  elastic  policy  of 
finding  a  place  for  every  sect,  every  sentiment,  every  god, 
every  deified  hero  or  saint,  that  would  consent,  even  indirectly, 
to  affiliate  itself.  Like  the  Paganism  of  the  Eoman  empire, 
the  Brahmanism  which  emerged  from  the  struggle  with 
Buddhism,  wounded  and  wise,  would  have  included  Chris- 
tianity itself,  if  that  had  consented  to  be  dragged  at  its  chariot 
wheels.  Krishna,  on  his  best  side,  it  was  not  difficult  to  iden- 
tify with  Christ,  sufficiently  to  satisfy  the  uneducated.  The 
Jesuits  of  the  Madura  Mission  themselves  favoured  the  iden- 
tification, and  forged  Vedas  to  prove  it.  So  saturated  is  the 
Bhagavat  Puran  of  this  period  with  Christian-like  sentiment, 
that  it  is  still  a  subject  of  discussion  whether  the  similarity 
was  not  designed. 

Krishna,  the  god  of  love  in  the  Oriental  sense  of  lust,  has 
ever  since  marked  the  accelerating  corruption  of  popular  Hin- 
dooism.  At  first,  like  Buddhism,  a  concession  to  the  discon- 
tent with  caste,  sacerdotalism,  exclusiveness,  and  rigidity,  the 
Krishna  worship  seems  to  rest  on  the  idea  of  brotherhood 
including  even  Muhammadans.  From  the  teaching  of 


1862.]  THE  NON-BRAHMANICAL  BROTHERHOODS.  547 

Rarnanuj  and  Ramanand  there  arose  four  reformers  in  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  in  each  of  the  great  provinces 
of  Hindooism.  Kabeer,  the  weaver,  was  the  Hindee;  Nanuk, 
the  herd-boy,  was  the  Punjabee  or  Sikh;  Chaitunya,  the  Brah- 
man, was  the  Bengalee ;  and  Tukaram,  the  shopkeeper,  was 
the  Marathee  teacher,  singer,  and  priest.  Each  was  the  Vates 
of  his  countrymen.  Dr.  Wilson  early  became  familiar  with 
their  teaching,  especially  with  that  of  Tukaram,  a  poet  who 
has  of  late  been  frequently  translated  into  English,  while  the 
whole  Adi  G-rantJi,  or  scriptures  of  ISTanuk,  has  been  recently 
turned  into  English  by  Dr.  Trumpp.  All  wrote  in  the  ver- 
nacular ;  all  proclaimed  the  brotherhood  of  Vishnoo  in  his 
Krishna  form;  and  all,  as  developed  by  their  followers,  ended 
in  the  deification  and  practice  of  lust  and  intolerant  cruelty. 
The  Jugganath  car- worship,  on  which  a  lurid  light  has  been 
thrown  by  the  recent  trial  and  banishment  to  the  Andamans 
of  its  deified  representative,  the  Eaja  of  Pooree,  for  murder 
by  torture,  is  of  the  same  reformed  school. 

Gradually  Brahmanism  found  that  its  subtle  policy  of 
widening  the  bonds  of  Hindooism  so  as  to  include  all  appa- 
rently conforming  sects,  though  on  the  whole  successful, 
encouraged  low -caste  fanatics  to  claim,  as  pontiffs,  the 
adoration  and  very  substantial  revenues  of  the  people.  The 
Vaishnava  brotherhoods  have  thus  honeycombed  the  old 
sacerdotalism  with  secret,  and  generally  filthy  and  execrable, 
cults  all  over  India  south  and  west  of  the  Ganges.  Their 
leaders  have  established  the  most  frequented  shrines,  for 
which  whole  armies  of  debased  recruiters  tout  for  pilgrims;  and 
they  have  become  wandering  popes,  who  travel  with  all  the 
pomp  and  pride  of  the  gods  they  represent.  The  regular 
Brahmans  resent  this,  not  on  moral  but  on  pecuniary  grounds, 
and  strive  to  compete  with  their  rivals.  Thus  the  deteriora- 
tion goes  on,  till  India  presents  the  same  state  of  things  which 
is  so  accurately  pictured  in  the  second  or  third  century 


548  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  L1862- 

romance  of  The  Clementines,  the  same  crowd  of  Antinomian 
sects,  like  the  Mcolaitans,  through  which  the  paganism  of  the 
empire  vainly  tried  to  compete  with  the  only  Faith  that  has 
ever  enforced  continence  and  purity.  He  who  would  learn 
what  Hindooism  now  is,  whether  Brahmanical  or  Yaishnava, 
will  find  the  materials  in  the  great  treatise  of  Dr.  Norman 
Chevers  on  Medical  Jurisprudence  in  India,  and  in  the  col- 
lection of  libri  execrandi  in  the  Bodleian,  made  by  the  late 
Horace  Hayman  Wilson  for  his  work  on  The  Religious  Sects 
of  the  Hindoos. 

Against  such  teaching  and  practices  there  has  always  been 
that  outraged  native  opinion  which  will  yet  cast  forth  the 
whole  system  responsible  for  them.  So  far  as  the  class  of 
educated  reformers,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  has  not 
yet  found  its  way  into  the  Christian  Church,  but  has  become 
known  as  "Young  Bombay"  or  "Young  Bengal,"  they  are 
indirectly  the  offspring  of  the  education  and  influences  of 
the  cultured  missionaries.  In  Bombay  Dr.  Wilson  was  the 
teacher,  the  adviser,  the  friend,  of  all  such  non-Christian  or 
almost  Christian  natives.  To  them,  in  a  hundred  ways,  the 
most  precious  portion  not  only  of  such  morning  leisure  as  he 
could  claim,  but  of  his  working  hours,  was  gladly  given  up. 
By  the  press,  the  college,  lectures,  the  Asiatic  Society,  public 
meetings,  discussions,  social  intercourse,  and  often  substantial 
patronage,  he  made  himself  their  example  and  their  guide. 
Poor  and  rich,  low  and  high  caste,  pundit  and  English-speak- 
ing, they  all  knew  him ;  for  they,  and  their  fathers,  and  their 
children  sat  at  his  feet  during  nigh  half  a  century.  In 
the  light  of  the  future,  we  believe  his  work  among  and  for 
the  non- Christian  natives  who  resided  in  or  passed  through 
Bombay,  to  have  exceeded  in  influence  that  which  created 
the  native  church.  It  extended  even  where  he  was  not 
personally  known ;  it  returned  to  him  in  the  most  unexpected 
ways.  How  he  was  to  the  natives  as  to  the  Europeans  of 


1862.]          CARNAL  OUTRAGES  OF  THE  MAHARAJ  PRIESTS.          549 

Bombay  a  great  and  recognised  moral  force,  all  the  more 
because  of  his  Hindoo  and  Muhammadan  discussions  and 
Parsee  controversies,  was  seen  in  what  is  popularly  known  as 
the  Maharaj  libel  case. 

When,  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  Nanuk  was 
gathering  his  Sikhs  or  disciples  in  the  Punjab,  Vallabh,  son 
of  a  Brahman  of  Bijanuggur,  went  to  the  north  of  India  as 
acharya  or  religious  teacher.  "To  Krishna,"  he  taught  his 
followers,  "  dedicate  body,  soul,  and  possessions  " — tan,  man, 
dlian.  Krishna  is  to  be  worshipped  in  the  person  of  the 
gooroo  or  teacher,  who  himself  becomes  the  god.  The  teacher 
is  therefore  to  be  addressed  as  a  King  or  Maharaj  ;  his 
followers  are  to  worship  him  by  sexual  intercourse,  or  by 
witnessing  such  intercourse.  While  gods,  the  Vallabacharyas 
are  also  gopees,  or  herd-women  devoted  to  Krishna  according 
to  the  scandalous  legend;  and  hence  they  dress  as  women, 
with  long  hair,  female  ornaments,  and  toe-rings.  The  union 
with  the  Maharajas,  of  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  devo- 
tees, according  to  the  vow  of  dedication,  is  union  with  Krishna, 
as  in  the  Eas  Lila.  Hence,  like  the  parallel  sect  of  the 
Shaktees,  or  worshippers  of  the  female  principle  in  Bengal, 
the  carnal  love-meetings  of  the  married  followers,  known  as  Eas 
Mandalis.  Hence  every  Vallabacharya  temple  becomes  the 
scene  of  adultery  under  so-called  divine  sanction.  This  faith 
is  professed,  these  practices  were  followed,  by  the  largest  and 
wealthiest  of  the  Hindoo  communities  of  Western  India,  whose 
scripture  is  the  tenth  book  of  the  Bhagavat  Puran,  translated 
from  Sanscrit  into  the  Brijabasha  dialect  as  Prem  Sagur,  or 
the  Ocean  of  Love.  The  Bhattias,  Marwarees,  and  Lowanas — 
the  men  who,  as  clerks  and  partners  in  mercantile  houses,  as 
capitalists  and  shopkeepers,  come  most  closely  into  contact 
with  Europeans — were  the  men  who  adored  the  Maharajas, 
and  whose  wives  and  daughters  were  thus  publicly  debauched. 
Numbering  probably  not  fewer  than  half  a  million  in  Western 


550  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1862. 

India,  they  paid  the  Maharajas'  dues,  according  to  a  fixed  tariff, 
on  every  article  they  sold,  the  real  payer  being  the  consumer 
of  course.  Thus  these  pontiffs  of  Krishna  waxed  fat  with 
organised  adultery  and  an  ever-increasing  tax  on  half  the 
trade  of  Bombay.  The  impost  of  a  farthing  on  every  ten 
pounds'  worth  of  Lancashire  goods  sold,  yielded  two  temples 
alone  £5300  in  one  year.  Not  one  important  article  of  trade 
escaped  a  similar  impost. 

The  Brahmans  of  the  island,  being  beggars  chiefly,  receive 
alms  from  the  Yaishnava,  as  well  as  Siva  sects ;  and  this  the 
Maharaj  pontiffs  in  1855  determined  to  stop,  as  an  interference 
with  their  rights.  Their  followers  consented,  on  the  condition 
of  reforms  in  the  temple  abuses,  such  as  the  cessation  by  the 
Maharajas  of  adulterous  intercourse  with  their  females  at  the 
winter  service  at  four  in  the  morning,  and  the  pollution  of  young 
girls,  the  ever-increasing  extortion,  the  taking  of  bribes  in 
cases  of  arbitration,  the  summoning  of  worshippers  to  the 
shrines  at  all  hours  to  attend  the  idol,  and  the  beating  of  the 
crowds  to  hasten  their  passage  through  the  temple.  The 
promises  were  given  but  never  carried  out.  The  ignorant 
Maharajas  were  defeated  in  a  public  discussion  with  the 
Brahmans  who  knew  Sanscrit ;  and  their  dignity  was  lowered 
by  the  order  of  the  Supreme  Court  that  they  must  attend 
when  parties  in  a  case,  although  they  objected  to  sit  lower 
than  a  European. 

Editing  the  Satya  ProJcash,  or  "  Light  of  Truth,"  one  of 
the  sixteen  Goojaratee  newspapers,  was  a  youth  Kursundass 
Mooljee,  who  was  one  of  their  followers  and  familiar  with 
their  practices.  He  became  the  centre  of  the  reformers ;  and 
against  him  the  Maharajas  hired  a  Parsee,  the  editor  of  our 
old  friend  the  Chabook,  or  "  Whip."  Kursundass  welcomed 
the  arrival  of  Judoonath  Brizruthunjee  from  Surat,  as  a 
Maharaj  who  was  said  to  have  himself  espoused  the  cause 
of  reform  so  far  as  to  establish  a  female  school.  But  one  of 


1862.]      A  REFORMER  EXPOSES  THE  PONTIFFS  OF  KRISHNA.       551 

the  reforming  party  having  caught  the  new-comer  in  the  very- 
act  of  adultery  in  the  temple,  it  became  necessary  to  expose 
that  Maharaj  also.  Formerly  the  principal  men  of  the  com- 
munity had  signed  a  "  slavery  bond/'  vowing  to  excommuni- 
cate Kursundass,  and  to  procure  the  passing  of  an  Act  to 
exempt  the  Maharajas  from  attendance  in  courts  of  justice. 
Only  when  that  had  been  signed  were  the  temples  opened 
and  the  enforced  fasting  ceased.  Kursundass  then  pub- 
lished an  article  headed  "The  Primitive  Eeligion  of  the 
Hindoos  and  the  present  Heterodox  Opinions,"  in  which  not 
only  the  whole  sect  but  Judoonath  Maharaj  by  name  was 
charged  with  doctrines  and  practices  involving  "  shameless- 
ness,  .subtlety,  immodesty,  rascality,  and  deceit."  This  ap- 
peared on  the  21st  October  1860.  Seven  months  after  the 
Maharaj  brought  an  action  for  libel  in  the  Supreme  Court 
against  the  editor  and  printer,  laying  the  damages  at  Es.  5000. 
At  the  same  time  he  induced  his  leading  followers  to  refuse 
to  give  evidence  under  pain  of  excommunication.  Two  of 
these  were  sentenced  to  heavy  fines  for  conspiracy  to  defeat 
the  ends  of  justice,  and  then  the  main  case  proceeded.  From 
the  26th  January  1862  it  lasted  forty  days,  for  twenty- 
four  of  which  it  was  before  Sir  M.  Sausse,  the  Chief  Justice, 
and  Sir  Joseph  Arnould,  Puisne  Judge. 

The  success  of  the  defendant,  who  pleaded  justification, 
was  due  to  two  men.  Mr.  Chisholm  Anstey,  his  senior  coun- 
sel, supplied  the  legal  learning  and  forensic  skill  with  all  that 
persistence  which,  when  not  erratic  as  too  often  in  his  case, 
made  him  an  antagonist  to  be  feared  whether  in  Parliament, 
at  the  bar,  or  on  the  bench.  Dr.  Wilson  contributed  the 
learning  and  the  uprightness  required  to  convict  the  Maharaj 
out  of  his  own  books.  Some  thirty  other  witnesses  on  either 
side  were  heard,  including  Judoonath  himself,  and  the  ex- 
penses amounted  to  £6000,  of  which  he  had  to  pay  the  greater 
part.  We  have  prefixed  to  this  Chapter  two  passages  from 


552  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1862. 

Sir  Joseph  Arnould's  judgment.  Of  Dr.  Wilson's  evidence 
the  accomplished  Judge  remarked — "Dr.  Wilson,  who  has 
studied  this  subject  with  that  comprehensive  range  of  thought 
(the  result  of  varied  erudition)  which  has  made  his  name  a 
foremost  one  among  the  living  Orientalists  of  Europe — Dr. 
Wilson  says:  'The  sect  of  Vallabacharya  is  a  new  sect,  inasmuch 
as  it  has  selected  the  god  Krishna  in  one  of  his  aspects,  that 
of  his  adolescence,  and  raised  him  to  supremacy  in  that  aspect. 
It  is  a  new  sect  in  as  far  as  it  has  established  the  pusthti-marg , 
or  way  of  enjoyment,  in  a  natural  and  carnal  sense.'  I  agree 
with  Dr.  Wilson  in  thinking  that,  '  all  things  considered,  the 
alleged  libel  is  a  very  mild  expostulation,'  involving  an 
'  appeal  to  the  principle  that  preceptors  of  religion,  unless 
they  purify  themselves,  cannot  expect  success  to  attend  their 
labours.' "  And  the  author  of  the  volume  which  contains  a 
history  of  the  whole  sect  and  trial 1  expresses  native  opinion 
when  he  writes  :  "  Dr.  Wilson's  labours  in  this  trial  deserve 
special  notice.  He  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  defendant 
his  rich  and  multifarious  stores  of  learning,  which  proved  of 
surpassing  value.  Throughout  the  whole  trial  this  learned 
missionary  ably  sustained  the  character  which  he  fills  in  the 
estimation  of  the  natives  of  India — that  of  a  philanthropist." 
All  the  journals  of  India,  native  and  European,  rejoiced  at 
the  vindication  of  morality  and  purity. 

Under  cross-examination  Dr.  Wilson  testified  to  his 
witnessing  great  abominations  practised  by  the  Vallab- 
acharyan  sectaries,  from  which  he  turned  away  with  dis- 
gust. So  little  informed  were  the  English  counsel  for  the 
ignorant  Maharaj  that  they  submitted  as  a  description  of 
the  sect  a  work  applicable  to  another  altogether,  and  Dr. 
Wilson  turned  the  tables  on  them.  But  in  re-publishing  a 
report  of  the  trial  in  the  Oriental  Christian  Spectator  he  wrote — 

1  History  of  the  Sect  of  the  Maharajas  or  Vallabacliaryas  in  Western  India. 
London,  1865. 


1862.]  HIS  EVIDENCE  AND  NATIVE  OPINION.  553 

"  Its  insertion  in  the  instructions  of  the  counsel  for  the  pro- 
secution shows  the  unprincipled  and  unscrupulous  measures 
of  the  prompters  in  this  case,  and  the  difficulties  under  which 
unsuspecting  English  gentlemen  laboured  in  dealing  with  it." 
It  should  not  be  overlooked  that  Dr.  Wilson  did  not  know 
Kursundass  Mooljee.  The  movement  was  a  purely  native 
one  for  reform  within  the  sect  to  which  the  principal  Hindoo 
traders  of  Bombay  belonged.  Till  he  was  summoned  to  the 
witness-box,  with  translations  of  forgotten  dialects  and  ex- 
posures of  iniquities  unmentionable  save  for  the  ends  of 
justice  and  morality,  the  natives  had  fought  alone.  And  he 
rejoiced  in  their  courage,  which  he  thus  publicly  acknow- 
ledged at  a  later  date  : — "  The  educated  Brahmans  •  of  the 
present  day  now  bid  fair  to  take  a  leading  part  in  destroying 
both  ignorance  and  error.  This  is  specially  the  case  in  Western 
India  among  many  learned  and  honest-minded  gentlemen, 
such  as  Dr.  Bhau  Daji,  Eao  Saheb  Vishvanath,  Narayan 
Mandalik,  Mahadeva  Govind  Eanade,  and  Eamkrishna  Gopal 
Bhundarkur."  When  all  was  over  Mr.  Kursundass  Mooljee 
resolved  to  visit  England,  an  account  of  his  travels  in  which 
he  subsequently  published  in  Goojaratee.  Then  it  was  that 
Dr.  Wilson  headed  all  classes  in  Bombay  at  a  meeting  called 
to  raise  funds  in  honour  of  the  earnest  reformer,  and  thus 
counselled  the  great  mercantile  community  of  the  Hindoos  : — 

"  A  most  horrible  system  of  immorality,  impurity,  and  iniquity, 
long  practised  in  Western  and  Northern  India,  had  been  exposed  and 
reprobated  in  a  most  effective  manner,  not  only  on  the  bench  of  justice, 
but  (by  the  help  of  the  public  press)  throughout  the  whole  length  and 
breadth  of  India.  Only  one  thing  remained  to  be  done  on  behalf  of 
Mr.  Kursundass  by  the  friends  of  reform  in  Bombay,  and  that  was  to 
present  him  with  a  substantial  and  permanent  token  of  their  approba- 
tion, esteem,  and  gratitude.  It  was  pleasing  to  find  that  this  public 
intimation  was  made  to  him  at  a  favourable  time — when  he  and  the 
esteemed  friend,  Eao  Bahadoor  Ramchundra  Balkrishna,  under  whose 
happy  roof  the  present  meeting  was  being  held,  were  about  to  brave 


554  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1862. 

the  prejudices  and  forces  of  caste  and  superstition  by  leaving  for  a 
season  the  soil  of  India,  and  proceeding  to  the  blessed  climes  of  Europe, 
both  for  their  self-improvement  and  making  legitimate  commercial 
arrangements  which  would  be  beneficial  to  their  country.  Their  con- 
templated voyage  and  journey,  they  have  been  told,  was  contrary  to 
the  direct  injunctions  of  what  have  been  called  the  Shastres  ;  and  it 
must  at  once  be  freely  and  unceremoniously  admitted  that  this  is  a 
fact.  The  Shastres  do  interdict  foreign  travel.  But  what  of  the  works 
themselves  so  called?  They  (meaning  by  them  the  Smritis  or  law 
books)  are  the  products  of  the  darkest  age  of  Indian  history.  Though 
in  some  instances  they  contain  traditional  information  of  a  curious 
kind,  their  legislation  respecting  social  life  is  often  of  the  most  puerile 
and  foolish  character.  It  is  exactly  in  many  respects  what  we  might 
expect  if  we  were  to  collect  the  Bairagees  and  other  devotees  of 
Walkeshwar,  Mumbadevi,  and  Nasik,  and  fill  with  them  the  Council 
Chamber.  Who,  nowadays,  is  prepared  to  abide  by  the  decision  of 
the  law  books  in  regard  either  to  moving  or  resting  1  I  have  seen 
the  attempt  made  to  follow  them  (after  their  violation  by  a  com- 
pact of  service  with  a  European)  by  a  learned  pundit  employed  to  teach 
the  Marathee  language  to  a  member  of  my  own  family.  Care- 
fully did  he  survey  the  interior  of  his  house,  a  few  yards  distant 
from  the  spot  where  the  meeting  had  assembled  together.  He  was 
pleased  to  find  the  floor  covered  with  matting  of  vegetable  origin,  and 
to  discover  a  chair  on  which  to  squat  himself  made  of  the  same 
material.  The  difficulty  in  the  way  of  his  getting  through  the  duties 
of  the  day  without  inconvenient  ceremonial  defilement,  was  seen  at  the 
entrance  to  the  residence.  There  lay  a  rug  of  animal  material,  which 
he  could  not  overstep  without  a  great  effort  of  muscular  power.  It 
was  only  by  a  hop,  step,  and  jump  that  he  could  clear  it.  Some- 
times he  fell  short  of  the  mark,  and  then  had  to  be  on  the  look- 
out for  the  tail  of  a  cow  to  touch  for  atonement  on  the  way  home 
(laughter).  Are  any  of  the  rational  opponents  of  foreign  travel  on 
the  score  of  its  opposition  to  the  Shastres  prepared  to  befool  them- 
selves by  really  making  the  Shastres  thus  the  rule  of  their  move- 
ments in  common  life  ?  (laughter  and  applause).  Are  they  even 
prepared  to  sit  according  to  the  Shastres,  and  to  undergo  the  well- 
known  penalty  to  be  inflicted  on  Soodras  (low-castes)  for  seating 
themselves  on  the  same  couch  with  a  Brahman  ?  Away  with  this 
nonsense.  Imitate  the  ancient  Indians,  who,  as  we  learn  from 
the  Vedas,  were  not  afraid  to  go  on  distant  voyages  for  mercantile  and 
other  purposes.  Imitate  in  this  matter  the  Bhatyas,  to  whose  com- 


1862.]  HINDOOS  URGED  TO  TRAVEL.  555 

munity  the  worthy  chairman  belongs ;  who  for  the  purposes  of  commerce 
are  found  on  the  shores  of  Arabia,  both  in  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the 
Ked  Sea,  and  on  the  coasts  of  Africa  even  as  far  south  as  Mozambique, 
and  who  have  used  these  liberties  from  time  immemorial.  Messrs. 
Kursundass  and  Ramchundra  are  to  be  congratulated,  not  only  for  the 
valuable  example  which  they  are  showing  to  their  countrymen  on  this 
occasion,  but  for  the  prospects  of  self-improvement  which  lie  before 
them.  The  friends  present  who  have  been  already  in  Europe  can  give, 
and  have  given,  through  the  press,  strong  testimony  in  this  matter. 
Indian  travel  in  Europe,  too,  bids  fair  to  be  as  instructive  to  the  natives 
of  India  as  European  travel  in  India  to  the  natives  of  Europe.  Our 
intending  travellers  are  looking  in  a  right  direction.  They  go  to  the 
centre  of  civilisation  and  philanthropy ;  and  they  will  there  take 
lessons  in  civilisation  and  philanthropy,  as  well  as  see  their  great  parent 
and  nourisher,  the  Christianity  of  the  'Bible,  in  vigorous  action.  Let 
them  look  not  only  at  London,  but  at  England  in  its  length  and 
breadth  ;  and  not  merely  at  England,  but  at  Scotland,  where  certainly 
they  will  have  a  warm  reception.  (Applause.)" 

Dr.  Wilson  had  himself  suggested  and  drawn  up  the 
appeal  for  a  public  recognition  of  "  the  disinterested  efforts 
of  Kursundass  Mooljee  to  improve  the  state  of  Goojaratee 
society,  and  especially  of  his  courageous  conduct,  truthful- 
ness, and  singleness  of  purpose  in  the  management  of  the 
Maharaj  libel  case."  His  name  is  followed  by  that  of  the 
Parsee  reformer,  Ardaseer  Framjee.  Christianity,  Hindooism, 
and  Zoroastianism  were  thus  seen  happily  allied  in  the 
cause  of  morality  and  humanity.  The  result,  with  all  that  it 
involved,  was  worth  Dr.  Wilson's  thirty  years'  strivings.  On 
the  same  day  he  assisted  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  the  Governor,  in 
examining  the  hundreds  of  Parsee  youth,  boys  and  girls,  who 
crowded  the  classes  of  the  Benevolent  Institution  endowed 
by  Sir  Jamsetjee  Jeejeebhoy.  The  learned  controversialist, 
whose  uncompromising  but  tolerant  zeal  for  his  Master  had 
years  before  excited  a  panic  among  the  community  when 
several  of  their  ablest  youths  were  baptized  into  Christ,  hail- 
ing the  pursuit  of  truth  in  every  form,  "  referred  to  the  intelli- 


556  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1862. 

gence  and  enterprise  of  the  Parsee  community,  who  would 
not  only  be  patrons  of  learning  in  India,  like  the  noble 
Jeejeebhoy  family,  but  participants  of  its  great  advantages." 
The  Governor  followed,  congratulating  the  dowager  Lady 
Jamsetjee  on  the  results  of  her  encouragement  of  female 
education. 

The  subtle  influence  of  Dr.  "Wilson  and  his  teaching,  per- 
meating generations  of  non- Christian  native  society,  not  only 
in  the  capital  but  in  distant  cities  and  stations,  may  be  best 
seen  if  we  select  one  of  the  many  Hindoo  families  to  whom 
he  always  was,  in  the  childlike  language  of  the  grateful 
people  of  India,  "  Kaka "  or  Uncle  Wilson ;  just  as  soldiers 
and  administrators  like  Nicholson,  Edwardes,  and  Abbot,  were 
among  the  wild  Afghan  tribes  of  our  north-west  frontier.  For 
forty  years,  and  with  four  of  its  generations  whom  he 
educated,  Dr.  Wilson  and  his  wife  maintained  a  closer 
personal  intercourse  and  more  affectionate  correspondence 
with  the  family  of  the  Hindoo  Tirmal  Eao,  than  we  have 
any  example  of.  The  now  aged  and  honoured  judge,  whom, 
in  1836,  his  father  took  from  Dharwar  in  the  far  south, 
to  be  educated  in  Bombay,  tells  the  story  so  well  in  his 
quaint  English  that  we  need  not  summarise  the  sixty-five 
letters  from  Dr.  Wilson  which  he  prizes.  This  communica- 
tion is  introduced  by  his  son,  the  Bombay  High  Court  Inter- 
preter and  Senior  Canarese  and  Marathee  Translator,  who 
writes  to  us — "  He  knew  four  generations  of  our  family.  He 
loved  me  and  my  brother  Venkut  Eao  most  tenderly.  He  very 
often  remarked,  in  the  meetings  of  his  friends,  that  our  father 
completed  his  education  under  him,  that  we  had  been  his 
pupils,  and  that  he  looked  upon  us  as  his  grandchildren. 
You  heard  the  same  observation  from  his  lips  when  he 
formally  introduced  us  to  you  in  one'  of  those  meetings  con- 
vened by  him  for  your  sake." 


1864.]  INFLUENCE  ON  FOUR  GENERATIONS.  557 

From  RAO  BAHADOOK  TIRMAL  RAO  VENKUTESH,  Pensioned 
Judge  and  First  Class  Honorary  Magistrate. 

"  10th  February  1878. — As  my  country  is  situated  at  the  distance 
of  about  350  miles  from  Bombay,  no  one  in  those  days  sent  their 
children  to  Bombay  to  be  educated.  In  1836  my  late  father  had 
occasion  to  go  to  Bombay  on  some  business,  and  was  struck  with 
the  English  education  that  was  imparted  to  the  young  men  in 
the  Government  school  there,  and  his  European  friends  advised 
him  to  send  me  to  Bombay.  It  was  determined  that  I  should  be 
placed  under  the  care  of  the  then  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Wilson,  in  preference  to 
being  put  into  the  Government  school.  I  went  to  his  house  to  pay 
my  respects  to  him  for  the  first  time.  I  remember  perfectly  well  how 
kindly  he  received  me  and  what  encouragement  he  gave  me.  He 
directed  me  to  see  him  in  his  house  both  in  the  mornings  and  evenings 
every  day,  besides  meeting  him  in  the  school.  For  some  time  Mathe- 
matics seemed  to  me  to  be  a  dry  and  useless  study.  He  therefore,  on 
one  occasion,  passed  his  hands  over  the  figure  of  the  5th  proposition  of 
the  first  book  of  Euclid  in  such  a  peculiar  manner,  and  explained 
matters  to  me  so  clearly,  that  from  that  moment  I  began  to  take 
great  liking  for  Mathematics.  He  taught  me  more  of  Geography, 
Astronomy,  Zoology,  general  History,  and  Scripture,  in  course  of  his 
conversations  in  his  house  than  in  the  regular  classes  in  the  schools. 
He  appointed  the  late  Rev.  R.  Nesbit  to  teach  me  literature  specially, 
in  addition  to  what  I  learnt  in  the  classes,  and  permitted  me  also  attend 
the  lectures  given  in  Logic,  Geology,  Botany,  and  Chemistry  in  the 
Elphinstone  College  by  Professors  Orlebar,  Harkness,  and  Bell.  Dr. 
Wilson's  mode  of  teaching  was  so  entertaining  that  we  never  felt  that 
we  were  studying,  but  we  used  to  think  that  we  were  playing  with 
him.  He  treated  us  more  like  our  father  than  any  one  else.  He 
attended  upon  us  during  our  sickness  personally.  In  those  days  my 
wife  was  quite  illiterate.  He  impressed  upon  my  mind  the  advantages 
of  female  education,  and  made  me  teach  her  to  read  and  write.  At  the 
same  time  he  got  his  sisters-in-law,  the  Misses  Anna  and  Hay  Bayne,  to 
undertake  the  education  of  my  wife. 

"  During  nights  Dr.  Wilson  took  me  out  in  open  air,  and  made  me 
acquainted  with  the  different  planets  and  constellations.  He  used 
daily  to  pray  to  God  in  my  behalf,  and  direct  my  mind  towards  God. 
On  Sundays  he  regularly  took  me  to  his  church  to  hear  him  preach. 
In  fact  the  trouble  that  he  took  to  educate  me  and  the  students  of  his, 
classes  was  really  inconceivable.  After  leaving  his  school  he  brought 
me  prominently  to  the  notice  of  the  then  Governor,  Sir  R.  Grant,  and 


558  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1864. 

other  officers  of  the  State,  and  it  was  in  a  measure  owing  to  his  recom- 
mendations that  I  obtained  the  offices  that  I  held  afterwards.  Dr. 
Wilson  always  looked  upon  me  as  one  of  his  earliest  scholars,  and 
loved  me  to  excess.  Twenty  years  afterwards  it  pleased  God  to  enable 
me  to  place  several  of  my  children  under  the  personal  care  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Wilson  and  his  late  partner,  Mrs.  Isabella  Wilson,  for  educational 
purposes.  It  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  express  adequately  the 
peculiar  pleasure  with  which  they  undertook  the  task,  and  how  well 
they  executed  it.  Dr.  Wilson  had  the  charge  of  the  education  of  the 
boys,  and  Mrs.  Wilson  that  of  the  girls.  It  was  owing  wholly  to 
Dr.  Wilson's  prayers,  training,  trouble,  and  exertions  that  my  two  boys, 
Jayasattia  Boohrao  Tirmal,  and  Venkutrao  Rookmangad  (now  my 
legal  nephew),  have  been  so  well  educated.  The  former  now  holds  a 
very  responsible  office  in  the  Honourable  the  High  Court  of  Judicature 
at  Bombay.  The  latter  obtained  the  degree  of  B.A.  during  Dr.  Wil- 
son's lifetime  ;  and  it  is  a  pity  that  the  latter  did  not  live  long  enough 
to  see  Venkut  Rao  become  an  LL.B.  also,  which  degree  the  University 
of  Bombay  has  just  conferred  upon  him. 

"  The  above  is  a  partial  account  of  Dr.  Wilson's  dealings  with  my 
family  alone.  He  treated  several  hundreds  of  other  families  in  a  simi- 
lar manner.  After  leaving  his  college  and  returning  to  my  country  I 
continued  to  visit  him  once  in  two  years  or  so,  and  spent  several  days 
with  him.  The  whole  of  his  time  used  to  be  occupied  in  doing  some 
public  good  or  other.  He  wrote  and  published  hundreds  of  tracts,  and 
several  books  on  religious,  educational,  historical,  and  other  subjects  in 
English,  Marathee,  Goojaratee,  and  other  languages.  He  assisted 
people  of  all  classes  in  various  ways.  His  dealings  with  all  were  kind, 
considerate,  and  honourable  throughout  ;  so  much  so  that  natives  of 
all  classes  and  creeds  feared  and  honoured  him  more  than  they  did  any 
other  person.  In  course  of  time  he  had  won  the  hearts  of  the  people 
so  much  that  they  were  convinced  that  nothing  could  go  wrong  with 
him.  His  very  name,  or,  as  the  natives  called  him,  '  Wilson  Kaka ' 
(i.  e.  Uncle  Wilson),  was  sufficient  to  inspire  any  one  with  the  fullest 
confidence. 

"  He  first  arrived  in  India  in  1829-30.  Since  that  time,  up  to  his 
death  in  1875,  no  less  than  eighteen  Governors  ruled  over  the  Western 
Presidency.  Each,  in  his  turn,  did  what  good  lay  in  his  power  to  the 
country.  There  is  no  wonder  in  that,  as  all  of  them  were  invested 
with  official  power,  and  had  at  their  command  money  and  men.  Dr. 
Wilson  was  a  poor  man,  without  power  or  money.  Nevertheless,  he 
did  more  good  to  India,  and  still  more  so  to  the  Presidency  of  Bombay, 


1864.]  SOCIAL  INTERCOURSE  WITH  HINDOOS.  559 

in  the  way  of  educating  people,  composing  books  suited  to  their  wants, 
in  various  languages  and  on  different  subjects,  inducing  them  to  be 
loyal  subjects  of  the  British  Crown,  collecting  ancient  manuscripts  and 
histories  of  the  country,  etc.  etc.,  than  all  the  eighteen  Governors  put 
together.  He  was  the  father  of  several  religious  and  educational 
Institutions.  Dr.  Wilson  was  held  in  the  greatest  esteem  by  the  suc- 
cessive Governors,  Commanders-in-Chief,  members  of  Council,  Judges 
of  the  High  Court,  and  almost  all  the  other  officers  of  the  State,  and  the 
native  nobility.  I  know  of  no  one  to  whom  greater  respect  was  paid 
than  to  Dr.  Wilson.  It  may  be  considered  that  I  am  exaggerating 
his  virtues  and  usefulness,  but  there  are  thousands  and  thousands  of 
Europeans  and  Natives  who  would  be  glad  to  corroborate  my  asser- 
tions, and  I  challenge  every  one  and  all  to  contradict  me  if  they 
possibly  can.  Dr.  Wilson  was  an  extraordinary  man.  Of  his  learning, 
travels,-  and  other  good  deeds  in  England  and  elsewhere,  I  leave  it  to 
better  hands  than  myself  to  describe.  I  only  say  what  I  have  seen 
and  known.  It  is  difficult  to  find  another  man  like  him.  I  am  really 
sorry  that  my  knowledge  of  the  English  language  is  so  limited  that  I 
am  not  able  to  express  more  vividly  the  varied  learning  and  usefulness 
of  Dr.  Wilson." 

In  all  the  offices  of  friendship  and  affection  common  to 
men  and  women  of  all  countries,  save  that  intercourse  from 
which  Hindoo  caste  alone  shuts  out  its  votaries,  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Wilson,  and  the  Misses  Bayne  for  a  time,  were  one  with  this 
Hindoo  family.  Children,  grandchildren,  great-grandchildren, 
came  successively  to  the  Ambrolie  Institution,  and  to  the 
Girls'  School,  while  they  spent  their  holiday  and  leisure 
hours  in  the  missionary's  home,  as  English  youths  would 
have  done.  Of  all  he  wrote  in  1857,  "I  know  of  no  instance 
of  any  family  residing  at  such  a  distance  from  the  seat  of  the 
Western  Presidency  making  such  judicious  arrangements  for 
the  culture  and  training  of  its  young  members."  At  the  fre- 
quent social  gatherings  of  old  students  in  the  mission-house, 
as  in  the  grateful  support  of  the  college  and  schools,  they 
were  foremost.  When  the  aged  mother  of  Tirmal  Eao 
passed  away,  Dr.  Wilson  wrote,  amid  the  hurry  of  his  duties 
in  England,  to  her  son,  his  student  of  1836,  "  I  deeply  sym- 


560  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1864. 

pathise  with  every  one  of  you.  Your  mother  was  no  common 
woman.  It  tells  much  in  her  favour  that  she  was  assiduous 
in  her  endeavours  to  promote  your  well-being,  and  that  of  all 
the  members  and  connections  of  your  family ;  that  she  en- 
couraged you  all  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge ;  and  that 
she  encouraged  the  work  of  female  education  in  India  by 
learning  to  read  herself,  when  she  had  in  her  life  numbered 
threescore  years.  The  day  must  come  when  we  ourselves 
must  make  the  great  transition  and  appear  before  the  omnis- 
cient and  righteous  Judge.  May  God  in  His  mercy  impart 
to  every  one  of  us  that  salvation  from  the  curse  and  pollution 
of  sin  of  which  we  stand  in  need,  and  which  is  freely  offered 
to  all  who  confide  in  the  great  atonement  of  the  Son  of  God. 
Of  this  atonement  your  dear  mother  had  heard,  though  not 
so  fully  as  you  yourself  have  done."  Such  cases  as  this  are 
by  no  means  rare  in  the  varied  transition  states  of  thought 
and  progress  through  which  India  is  passing  under  British 
rule  and  missionary  agencies  of  all  kinds.  In  Bengal  whole 
families  or  clans,  like  the  Dutts,  have-  together  taken  the  step 
which  seals  all,  and  have  publicly  professed  Christ. 

Very  similar  to  this  among  the  Parsees  was  Dr.  Wilson's 
relations  with  another  Judge,  Mr.  Manockjee  Cursetjee,  last- 
ing over  forty  years.  So  with  Dadoba  Pandurang  since  1834, 
one  of  the  University  Examiners  and  an  early  reformer.  The 
Native  Princes,  Muhammadan  and  Hindoo,  rarely  visited  the 
capital  without  seeking  an  interview  with  one  who  had  been 
a  welcome  preacher  in  their  durbars  ;  and  on  such  occasions 
of  rejoicing  as  marriages,  they  sent  him  kkureetas,  or  letters  of 
honour,  illuminated  with  the  perfect  taste  of  the  Oriental, 
and  delicately  besprinkled  with  gold  dust.  When  a  distin- 
guished Native  statesman  like  the  Eaja  Dinkur  Eao,  who  did 
so  much  for  Gwalior  and  for  Lord  Canning's  Administration 
in  1858-62,  visited  Bombay,  he  carried  an  introduction  to 
Dr.  Wilson  from  Sir  Richmond  Shakespeare.  Lord  Canning 


1859.]  INFLUENCE  ON  NATIVE  POTENTATES.  561 

testified  of  that  astute  Marathee  : — "  Seldom  has  a  ruler 
been  served  in  troublous  times  by  a  more  faithful,  fearless, 
or  able  minister,"  for  his  counsel  saved  the  Maharaja  of 
Gwalior  in  1857.  When  still  more  distant  potentates,  like 
Sultan  Abdou  of  Joanna,  repeated  his  visit  to  India,  the 
Government,  changed  every  five  years,  turned  to  Dr.  Wilson 
for  information  regarding  him.  The  intercourse  of  an  earlier 
year,  renewed  on  that  occasion,  resulted  in  this  farewell  letter 
from  the  petty  but  important  prince,  whose  broken  English 
is  not  discreditable  to  one  who  had  so  few  opportunities  as 
this  ruler  of  the  Comoro  Islands,  in  the  once  notorious  slave 
route  of  the  Mozambique  Channel: — 

"  KURACHEE,  4th  December  1858. 

"  SIR. — I  have  the  honour  most  respectfully  to  apprize  you  of  my 
safe  arrival  in  Kurachee.  I  am  extremely  sorry  that  I  did  not  confess 
the  true  which  is  in  Christ  during  my  stay  at  Bombay.  I  have  also 
not  been  comfortable  since  I  have  left  you  and  your  very  kind  lady, 
although  the  Eight  Honourable  Lord  Elphinstone  have  been  very  kind 
to  me,  and  allow  me  to  have  in  Kurachee  five  rupees  a-day  and  a  pass- 
age to  my  country.  But  this  does  not  make  me  comfortable  whenever  I 
think  this — for  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  begotten  Son 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish  but  have  everlast- 
ing life.  I  hope  you  will  be  so  kind  as  to  recommend  me  to  one 
Missionary  in  Kurachee,  and  to  whom  I  will  confess  Christ  before  I 
will  leave  Kurachee.  Should  this  letter  find  you  in  the  full  enjoyment 
of  health  and  prosperity  I  shall  never  forget  you  and  your  kind  lady. 
I  return  you  thousand  thanks,  for  your  kindness  was  to  me  to  shew 
me  the  true,  and  I  hope  God  that  you  and  your  very  kind  lady  may 
live  long  in  good  health  and  prosperity." 

But  dearest  of  all  to  John  Wilson  were  his  children  in 
the  faith,  gathered  out  of  every  kindred,  and  tribe,  and  tongue ; 
barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  and  free,  from  all  the  lands  around 
the  Indian  Ocean.  On  the  thirtieth  anniversary  of  his  land- 
ing at  Bombay  the  whole  adult  community,  of  more  than  two 
hundred  souls,  presented  him  with  a  loving  address,  and  a  copy 
of  the  Hexapla,  as  best  typifying  his  work  and  the  tie  which 

2  o 


562  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1359. 

bound  them  to  Mm  and  to  each  other.  The  address  was 
signed  in  their  name  by  the  representative  Parsee  and  Brah- 
man now  ordained  Christian  ministers,  the  Eevs.  Dhunjeebhoy 
Nowrojee  and  Narayan  Sheshadri.  Its  tenor  is  seen  in  his 
reply,  which  is  full  of  suggestiveness  alike  to  the  Church  of 
India  and  to  those  Western  Churches  which  have  been  privi- 
leged, all  too  slowly  and  coldly,  to  lay  its  foundations. 

"  The  love  and  affection  which  yon  have  ever  borne  to  me  since 
before  my  delighted  eyes  you  one  by  one,  and  two  by  two  in  some 
instances,  passed  from  the  darkness  of  heathenism  and  error  into  the  light 
and  grace  of  the  Lord,  has,  next  to  your  steady  and  consistent  adher- 
ence to  the  cause  of  Christ  and  your  advancement  in  usefulness,  proved 
the  greatest  ministerial  solace  and  comfort  which  I  have  enjoyed  in  the 
hallowed  evangelistic  enterprise  in  which  it  is  my  privilege,  under  a 
deep  sense  of  personal  unworthiness,  to  engage  in  this  great  and  pro- 
mising though  still  benighted  land.  I  feel  that  the  bond  which  unites 
us  together  in  mutual  respect  and  confidence  is  of  a  permanent 
character,  and  I  earnestly  pray  that  it  may  be  more  and  more 
sanctified  to  us  all  by  the  spirit  of  the  glorious  Saviour  by  Whom  we 
have  been  redeemed  and  Whom  we  seek  to  serve. 

"  You  express  your  belief  that  good  has  followed  my  labours  in 
India.  This,  as  you  see  and  acknowledge,  is,  to  any  extent  that  it  may 
have  been  realised,  the  consequence  entirely  of  the  divine  blessing, 
which  I  ever  desire  to  acknowledge  with  humility  and  praise.  I  thank 
God  on  all  occasions  for  bringing  me  to  the  shores  of  India,  on  which 
my  affections  were  strongly  set  from  my  youthful  days,  though  I  was 
ready  to  be  sent  as  a  Missionary  of  the  Cross  to  any  part  of  the  world 
which  might  be  selected  for  me  by  the  wisdom  of  the  Church  seeking 
for  divine  direction.  I  bless  God  for  my  appointment  to  found  the 
Scottish  Missions  at  the  seat  of  the  Western  Presidency  of  India,  the 
peculiar  importance  of  which  I  had  begun  to  discern  before  I  left  my 
native  land,  and  for  the  great  and  effectual  door  of  usefulness  which 
His  gracious  providence  here  opened  for  myself,  and  for  the  esteemed 
brethren  in  the  ministry — particularly  my  dear  brother  Mr  Nesbit — 
who  came  to  my  assistance  after  a  considerable  number  of  years  had 
been  passed  by  me  in  solitary  but  not  unfruitful  labours  in  this 
mission.  I  have  constantly  sought  to  use  all  available  instrumentalities 
and  opportunities  for  the  prosecution  of  the  work  in  which  I  have  been 
engaged  ;  and  while  I  more  and  more  earnestly  pray  the  Lord  to  pardon 


1859.]  THE  NATIVE  CHURCH.  563 

my  numerous  shortcomings  and  offences  in  His  work,  I  more  and  more 
seek  to  give  Mm  the  undivided  praise  for  what  has  been  accomplished. 
It  is  in  His  name  that  I  have  sought  to  advance  His  cause  by  speech 
and  writing,  and  by  teaching  and  preaching,  both  among  young  and 
old,  in  schools  and  seminaries  of  learning  both  for  males  and  females, 
in  the  lecture  room  of  this  house,  and  in  places  of  public  concourse 
both  in  this  city  and  neighbourhood,  and  in  distant  districts  of  this 
land.  A  similar  assurance  I  can  give  you  in  behalf  of  the  Lord's 
devoted  ministerial  services  in  Bombay  and  in  the  contiguous  Presi- 
dencies, many  of  whom  we  have  been  privileged  to  welcome  to  this 
land,  and  some  of  whom,  as  our  dear  brethren  of  the  Irish  Presby- 
terian, to  introduce  in  the  first  instance  to  the  field  of  their  labours. 

"  While  I  thank  God  for  the  multitudes  near  us  and  afar  off  in 
India,  who  by  the  labours  of  all  his  servants  in  this  land  have  become 
ashamed  of  the  gods  and  idols,  and  doctrines  and  rites  of  their  varied 
superstitions  ;  and  while  I  see  many,  particularly  of  the  young  in  this 
place  and  neighbourhood  apparently  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  God, 
I  especially  rejoice,  with  thankfulness  to  God,  in  those  who,  like  your- 
selves, have  altogether  entered  the  Christian  fold,  ,and  who  by  their 
spirit  and  temper,  as  well  as  their  walk  and  conversation,  give  good 
evidence  that  they  belong  not  only  to  the  visible  but  invisible  Church 
of  Christ.  I  view  you  emphatically  as,  under  God,  the  hope  of  this 
mission.  You  are  the  first  fruits  into  Christ  in  this  locality,  and  have 
the  Christian  character  to  exhibit  to  those  who  are  bone  of  your  bone 
and  flesh  of  your  flesh.  You  have  the  truth  of  Christ  to  declare  to 
multitudes  from  whom,  both  privately  and  publicly,  you  may  obtain  a 
hearing.  In  this  work  some  of  you,  who  have  been  called  to  the 
ministry,  have  been  honoured  yourselves  to  win  souls  to  Christ ;  while 
others  of  you  have  brought  some  of  your  relations  and  connections 
under  the  sound  of  the  Gospel,  and  in  a  good  degree  aided  in  their 
Christian  instruction.  In  the  work  of  personally  endeavouring  to 
promote  the  enlightenment  and  conversion  of  your  countrymen  I  trust 
you  will  all  more  and  more  abound.  This  work  must  not  be  suffered 
to  devolve  wholly,  or  even  principally,  on  the  officials  of  the  Christian 
Church,  necessary  though  they  be  for  its  advancement.  What  would 
you  think  of  a  regiment  of  soldiers  who  would  be  content  to  trust  to 
its  officers  for  the  whole  fighting  against  the  common  enemy  1  I  should 
be  glad  to  see  in  you  all  the  activity  and  zeal  of  the  Christians  of 
apostolical  times,  not  only  in  your  own  mutual  edification  and  comfort, 
but  in  your  efforts  to  convey  to  those  around  you  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  he  has  sent. 


564  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1859. 

"  My  dear  brethren  Messrs.  Dhunjeebhoy  and  Narayan,  in  handing 
me  your  address  and  request,  have  expressed  to  me  their  special  grati- 
tude for  what  I  have  from  time  to  time  sought  to  do  for  the  native 
missionary  in  the  matters,  as  I  take  it,  of  his  being  called  to  labour  as 
an  evangelist,  set  apart  for  his  great  work  by  the  solemnities  and  vows 
of  ordination — God's  own  ordinance,  and  in  his  being  permitted  to 
share  in  the  common  councils  and  deliberations  of  the  Christian 
ministry  and  mission  with  which  he  is  connected.  For  one  to  have 
done  less  than  I  have  done  in  this  matter  would  have  been  to  sacrifice 
the  deepest  convictions  of  my  judgment  and  conscience,  both 
as  far  as  Christian  right  and  Christian  expediency  are  con- 
cerned. You  know  that  our  mission  in  general  fully  concurred  in  the 
views  which  I  have  been  led  to  take  of  the  questions  raised,  and  that 
no  serious  opposition  was  ever  offered  to  the  principles  which  they 
recognised  in  the  head-quarters  of  presbytery  in  Scotland.  While  we 
seek  for  the  due  probation  of  entrants  into  th#  holy  ministry,  abroad 
as  well  as  at  home,  we  must  remember  that  when  the  probation  has 
been  satisfactorily  rendered,  all  due  privileges  should  not  only  be 
greatly  but  joyfully  and  thankfully  accorded.  Probation  in  such  a 
land  as  India,  filled  with  people  of  a  strange  countenance  and  a  strange 
tongue,  and  what  is  more,  a  strange  heart,  is  needed  certainly  as  much 
by  the  missionaries  from  the  West  as  those  raised  up  in  the  field  of 
labour  in  the  East.  They  cannot,  without  the  greatest  injury  to  them- 
selves and  the  enterprise  in  which  they  are  engaged,  be  free  of  the 
judgment  and  experience  of  those  who  may  be  supposed  best  to  know 
the  people  and  languages,  and  creeds  and  customs  of  India.  A  common 
council  is  the  essential  characteristic  of  presbytery.  While  it  gives 
full  scope  to  the  judgment  and  conscience  of  all,  it  gives  the  fullest 
scope  to  the  gifts  of  all  for  the  information  of  that  judgment  and  con- 
science. There  is  even  peculiar  potency  in  its  administration,  because 
from  time  to  time  it  can  select  its  own  agencies  for  work  to-  be  done 
by  individuals  and  committees." 

The  practical  outcome  of  this  address  was  the  erection  of 
that  ecclesiastically  becoming  church,  in  which  the  native 
congregation  under  its  own  called  native  minister  have 
worshipped  since  1869.  Aided  by  friends  like  Dr.  Hugh 
Miller  and  Mr.  James  Burns  in  the  west  of  Scotland,  and 
themselves  contributing  ten  thousand  rupees  out  of  their 
scanty  income,  the  native  church  raised  the  structure  at 


1863.]  STEPHEN  HISLOP  OF  NAGPORE.  565 

Ambrolie,  of  which  Mr.  Emerson  was  architect,  with  a  manse, 
at  the  cost  of  £6000.  In  this,  as  in  every  Christian  and 
philanthropic  movement  which  he  advocated,  Dr.  Wilson's 
personal  subscriptions  were  almost  lavishly  generous,  for  he 
knew  the  force  of  example.  The  converts  who,  as  elders  and 
members,  bestirred  themselves  to  erect  this  memorial  of  their 
gratitude,  were — Manuel  Gomes,  Mikhail  Joseph,  Yohan  Prem, 
Baba  Pudmanjee,  Bapu  Mazda,  Behramjee  Kersajee,  Khan 
Singh,  Mattathias  Cohen,  Kashinath  Vishvanath,  Wasudeva 
Pandurang,  Shapoorjee  Eduljee,  and  Eewa  Eamjee.  More 
significant  than  any  statue  of  John  Wilson  is  this  Christian 
temple  of  his  converts,  on  the  spot  where  he  lived  and 
laboured  for  nigh  half  a  century. 

In  1863  the  Christian  civilisation  of  India  suffered  a  loss 
second  only  to  that  of  those  other  pioneers  Wilson  and  Duff. 
The  Eev.  Stephen  Hislop  of  Nagpore  had  proved  himself 
worthy  to  stand  beside  them,  alike  in  the  intensity  of  his 
devotion  and  the  breadth  of  his  culture.  Aided  by  Mr.  Hunter, 
he  had  built  up  the  mission  to  the  Hindoos  and  Gonds  of 
Central  India,  through  all  the  difficulties  of  bad  feudatory 
rule,  annexation,  caste  disputes,  and  the  misgovernment  even 
of  British  officers  for  a  short  time.  The  Eev.  J.  G.  and 
Mrs.  Cooper,  who  still  carry  on  his  work  in  his  spirit,  helped 
him.  How  when  he  was  mistaken  for  another  in  1853  he 
was  nearly  put  to  death  by  a  riotous  mob  in  Nagpore,  and 
how  he  was  the  means  of  preparing  the  Government  against 
the  mutiny  and  projected  massacre  by  the  sepoys  and 
Mussulman  rabble  of  Nagpore,  Mr.  Hunter  has  told.1  Were 
it  becoming  so  long  as  some  of  the  actors  are  alive,  we  could 
add  the  details  of  his  service  which,  through  the  Friend  of 
India  and  privately,  opened  the  eyes  of  Lord  Canning  to 
the  misrule  that  followed  the  Mutiny,  and  resulted  in  the 

1  See  the  well -written  History  of  the  Missions  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland 
in  India  and  Africa,  by  the  Eev.  Kobert  Hunter,  M.A.     1873. 


566 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1863. 


creation  of  the  Central  Provinces  under  Sir  K.  Temple  as 
first  Chief  Commissioner.  In  all  that  related  to  the 
neglected  territory,  ite  varied  people  of  five  tongues,  its 
simple  but  savage  hill  Gonds,  its  geology  and  unparalleled 
mineral  resources,  its  schools,  native  officials,  and  admini- 
strative needs,  Sir  E.  Temple  found  Hislop  his  counsellor. 
The  missionary  was  more  to  the  country  than  ten  regiments 
or  a  whole  establishment  of  civil  officers  were  to  it.  Dr. 
Wilson  rejoiced  in  his  work,  so  like  his  own — spiritual,  scien- 
tific, philanthropic.  But  all  too  soon  Hislop  was  removed 
suddenly,  while  the  Chief  Commissioner  and  the  Bombay 
philanthropist,  each  in  his  own  way,  published  unavailing 
lamentations  and  eulogies.  It  was  on  the  4th  September, 
after  a  long  break  in  the  latter  rain,  when  Hislop  and  Sir  R. 
Temple  had  gone  out  to  examine  the  Scythian  stones  at 
Takulghat,  and  Hislop  remained  behind  to  examine  a  Govern- 
ment school,  that  the  missionary  disappeared.  In  the  interval 
between  Sir  E.  Temple  crossing  a  stream  and  the  missionary 
reaching  it  on  his  way  to  the  camp,  the  water  had  been 
swollen  by  sudden  rain,  and  Stephen  Hislop  was  drowned. 
His  riderless  horse  told  the  tale  too  late  to  do  more  than 
rescue  the  dear  remains.  Another  martyr  to  duty  had  his 
name  written  in  the  great  roll  of  Christian  men  who  have 
died  as  well  as  lived  for  the  people  of  India.  Foremost 
among  his  supporters  was  the  friend  of  Judson,  Sir  Henry 
Durand,  when,  for  a  time,  that  officer  was  the  Political  Eesi- 
dent  at  Nagpore. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

1865-1868. 

NEW  BOMBAY  — DR.  WILSON  AMONG  THE  EUROPEANS  -- 
DR.  LIVINGSTONE— THE  ABYSSINIAN  EXPEDITION. 

The  Changes  in  Anglo-Indian  Society — Dr.  "Wilson  leaves  Ambrolie  for 
"  The  Cliff" — The  Memories  of  Thirty  Years — American  Slavery  and  Bombay 
Cotton — Rise  of  Prices  in  India— The  Bombay  Mania  of  1863-66 — The  Crash 
in  1867 — Dr.  Wilson's  Letters  on  the  Crisis — His  Hospitalities — Distinguished 
Visitors  from  1863  to  1870 — Mission  in  South  Arabia — Letters  to  Dr.  John 
Muir  —  Discoveries  in  East  Africa  —  Origin  of  Nyassa  Settlement — Lord 
Elphinstone's  Letter — Dr.  Livingstone's  First  Visit — His  Organisation  of  last 
Expedition — Address  in  the  Town  Hall  —  Chuma  and  Wykatane —  Letters 
from  Dr.  Livingstone  by  Mr.  H.  M.  Stanley — The  Abyssinian  Converts,  Gabru 
and  Maricha  Warka — A  "Father  in  Christ — Four  Years'  Imprisonment  of 
Captives  by  Theodoras— Sir  George  Yule's  Offer  of  Rs.  20,000— Military 
Authorities  apply  to  Dr.  Wilson — His  Abyssinian  Converts  become  Counsellors 
of  Prince  Kassai — The  Prince,  now  King  John  of  Ethiopia — Dr.  Wilson  en- 
trusted by  Government  with  more  Abyssinian  Youths — The  Light  radiating 
from  Bombay. 


Thy  borders  are  in  the  midst  of  the  seas ; 

Thy  builders  have  perfected  thy  beauty. 

Of  cypresses  of  Senir  they  made  all  thy  planks, 

Cedars  from  Lebanon  they  took  to  make  masts  for  thee  j 

Of  the  oaks  of  Bashan  they  made  thine  oars, 

Thy  benches  they  made  of  ivory, 

Inlaid  in  box- wood,  from  the  islands  of  Chittim. 

Fine  linen  with  broidered  work  from  Egypt,  is  thy  sail,  to  serve  thee  for  a 

banner ; 

Blue  and  purple  from  the  isles  of  Elishah  is  thine  awning. 
The  inhabitants  of  Zidon  and  Arvad  are  thy  rowers. 
Thy  wise  men,  0  Tyre,  are  in  thee,  they  are  thy  pilots. 
The  ancients  of  Gebal  and  its  wise  men  are  in  thee  thy  calkers. 
All  the  ships  of  the  sea,  and  their  mariners,  are  in  thee, 
To  traffic  in  thy  .merchandise. 

Persia  and  Lud  and  Phut  are  in  thine  army,  thy  men  of  war ; 
They  hang  up  shield  and  helmet  in  thee, 
They  give  splendour  to  thee. 
The  men  of  Arvad,  and  thine  army, 
Are  upon  thy  oaks  round  about ; 
And  the  Gammadim  are  in  thy  towers ; 
They  hang  up  their  shields  upon  thy  walls  round  about ; 
They  make  thy  beauty  perfect. 
Tarshish  tradeth  with  thee 
For  an  abundance  of  all  kinds  of  goods ; 
With  silver,  iron,  tin,  and  lead, 
They  pay  for  thy  wares. 

Javan,  Tubal,  and  Meshech,  they  also  trade  with  thee; 
They  trade  with  thee  with  persons  of  men  and  vessels  of  brass. 
From  the  house  of  Togarmah, 
They  pay  for  thy  wares  in  riding-horses  and  mules. 
The  men  of  Dedan  trade  with  thee ; 
Many  islands  are  at  thy  hand  for  trade ; 
They  bring  to  thee  in  barter  horns  of  ivory  and  ebony. 
Syria  tradeth  with  thee 
For  a  multitude  of  the  wares  of  thy  making ; 
They  pay  for  thy  wares 

With  carbuncles,  purple,  and  broidered  work, 
And  fine  linen,  and  coral  and  rubies. 
Judah  and  the  land  of  Israel,  they  trade  with  thee ; 
They  trade  with  thee  with  wheat  of  Minnith, 
And  sweet  cakes  and  honey,  and  oil  and  balm. 
Damascus  tradeth  with  thee 
For  a  multitude  of  wares  of  thy  making, 
For  a  multitude  of  all  sorts  of  goods, 
With  the  wine  of  Helbon,  and  white  wool. 
Yedan  and  Javan  offer  yam  in  thy  fairs ; 
Wrought  iron,  cassia,  and  calamus  are  in  thy  market. 
Dedan  tradeth  with  thee  in  coverings  for  riding. 
Arabia,  and  all  the  princes  of  Kedar,  they  are  at  thy  hand  for  trade , 
The  merchants  of  Sheba  and  Raamah  they  trade  with  thee." 

EZEKIEL  xxvii.  4-22. 


1862.]  CHANGES  IN  ANGLO-INDIAN  SOCIETY.  569 


CHAPTEE  XVIII. 

the  least  of  the  results  of  the  Mutiny  was  a  change  in 
Anglo-Indian  society.  On  the  one  hand  the  influx  of  artisans 
for  the  railways,  and  of  adventurers  from  Australia  with 
consignments  of  horses  or  in  search  of  employment,  was 
accompanied  by  the  military  mistake  which  disbanded  the 
East  India  Company's  European  army,  flooded  the  cities  and 
stations  with  discontented  and  injured  soldiers,  and  in  too 
many  cases  doomed  the  widows  and  wives  of  the  men  who 
had  regained  the  empire  to  a  life  of  shame.  The  "loafer" 
class  was  called  into  existence,  and  for  the  first  time  in  our 
history  white  prostitution  was  seen  in  India.  Now  the  ablest 
even  of  the  English  authorities  who  were  responsible  for  the 
blunder,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  Lord  Canning,  Sir  Henry 
Durand,  and  all  the  experienced  officers  on  the  spot,  begin 
to  see  that  the  only  solution  of  the  difficulty  of  recruiting 
60,000  soldiers  for  India  is  to  fall  back  on  a  local  army 
attached  to  the  new  organisation  of  Lord  Cardwell.  On  the 
other  hand  the  ruling  class,  the  civil,  military,  and  mercantile 
communities,  who  emerged  from  the  two  years'  conflict  with 
barbarism  in  its  worst  form,  had  lost  all  confidence  in  the 
permanence  not  of  our  rule  but  of  our  institutions.  They 
ceased  to  trust  the  natives,  to  like  the  country.  The  "  old 
Indian"  was  no  more.  The  change  had  really  begun  in  1856, 
when  the  first  set  of  Competition -Wallas  arrived,  and  the 
Haileybury  monopoly  passed  away.  But  when  complete 
peace  once  more  settled  down  on  the  empire  with  the  first 
day  of  1859,  there  was  a  rush  home.  New  furlough  rules,  the 


570  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1862. 

substitution  of  England  for  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  as  the 
furlough  sanitarium,  more  rapid  and  frequent  means  of  com- 
munication, cheaper  postage,  and  finally  new  men,  changed 
the  whole  character  of  Anglo-Indian  society.  Whether  for 
good  or  evil  we  shall  not  here  determine,  so  far  as  England  is 
concerned.  But  the  change  has  not  been,  either  politically  or 
socially,  for  the  good  of  the  people  of  India  thus  far.  India  is 
undoubtedly  better  ruled  so  far  as  systems  of  administration 
are  concerned.  Is  it  more  wisely  governed  as  to  the  mode 
in  which  these  systems  are  applied  ? 

Very  much  against  his  will  Dr.  Wilson  had  to  submit  to 
the  social  revolution,  which,  however,  he  continued  to  influ- 
ence to  the  last  in  Bombay.  The  attendant  rise  of  prices  led 
the  native  owner  of  the  Ambrolie  mission-house  to  demand 
a  rent  of  Es.  300  a  month.  This,  wrote  Dr.  Wilson  to  Dr. 
Tweedie,  "  is  much  beyond  the  ability  of  both  the  mission  and 
myself  to  give ;"  and,  accordingly,  the  home  of  thirty  years  was 
vacated. 

"BOMBAY,  13th  January  1862. — It  was  not  without  regret  that,  a 
fortnight  ago,  we  left  an  abode  in  which  we  had  so  long  resided  and 
called  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  in  union  with  dear  and  devoted 
friends  and  relatives  who  have  either  finished  or  are  now  running  their 
appointed  course ;  in  which  we  have  commenced  and  carried  on 
extensive  and  diversified  evangelistic  operations,  manifestly  blessed  by 
God  to  the  instruction  of  many  and  the  conversion,  all  things  con- 
sidered, of  not  a  few ;  in  which  we  had  witnessed  the  appearance  of  the 
first  confessors  for  Christ  of  various  classes  of  the  community  of 
Western  India,  and  maintained  in  their  behalf,  and  sometimes  with 
considerable  risk  to  ourselves,  a  successful  struggle  for  religious 
liberty  and  toleration  ;  in  which  the  first  natives  ordained  to  the 
Christian  ministry  in  the  Presidency  were  set  apart  for  their  glorious 
office  ;  and  in  which  so  many  meetings  and  reunions  of  the  Lord's 
people  and  those  seeking  the  Lord,  both  of  the  East  and  of  the  West, 
had  taken  place,  with  the  expected  and  realised  presence  of  Him  who 
has  promised  that  when  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  His 
name  there  He  will  be  in  the  midst  of  them.  Much  sympathy  was 
extended  to  us  on  the  occasion  by  our  friends,  including  the  converts 


1862.]  LEAVES  AMBROLIE  FOR  MALABAR  HILL.  571 

and  a  goodly  number  of  other  natives.  We  durst  not  complain  against 
that  dispensation  of  Divine  Providence  by  which  our  movement  was 
ordered.  Even  had  we  been  tempted  to  do  this  the  dealings  of  a 
sovereign  God  with  those  around  us  would  have  rebuked  our  presump- 
tion. For  three  or  four  days  before  we  left  the  blast  of  pestilence  was 
directed  against  those  dwelling  at  our  very  doors,  so  much  so  that  in 
the  nearest  inclosure  between  forty  and  fifty  persons  died  in  this  limited 
time,  and  fourteen  (whom  friends  were  not  found  either  to  bury  or  to 
burn  till  the  police  carried  their  bodies  off  in  carts)  in  a  single  night. 
More  than  once  during  the  last  thirty  years  we  have  witnessed  a  similar, 
though  not  such  an  extensive  mortality,  while  we  have  not  been  afraid 
for  the  terror  by  night  nor  for  the  arrow  that  flies  by  day,  knowing 
that  the  Lord  would  preserve  us  in  the  path  and  place  of  duty  as  long 
as  he  might  be  pleased  to  demand  our  services.  It  is  not  unlikely  that 
Ambrolie  House  may  soon  be  put  to  a  use  very  different  from  that  to 
which  it  has  so  long  been  devoted.  But  this  may  not  be  wondered  at. 
Dr.  Owen  says  that,  as  far  as  he  knew,  sheep  soon  fed  on  the  spot  con- 
nected with  which  God  had  said,  '  Put  off  the  shoes  from  off  thy  feet, 
for  the  ground  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy.'  We  are  called  upon  to 
remember  that  the  earth  is  the  Lords  and  the  fulness  thereof  ;  and  to 
appropriate  to  ourselves  the  assurance,  '  Wherever  I  record  my  name 
there  will  I  come  unto  you,  and  I  will  bless  you,  saith  God.'" 

To  the  adjoining  Institution  were  added  sheds,  tents,  and 
other  temporary  accommodation,  and  there  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Wilson,  his  colleague  Mr.  Stothert,  who  had  brought  new 
strength  to  the  work  some  time  before,  the  female  schools, 
the  book  depository,  and  even  some  of  the  native  catechists, 
were  accommodated.  Twelve  years  before,  when  her  hus- 
band was  subject  to  frequent  attacks  of  fever,  Mrs.  Wilson 
had  urged  him  to  take  up  his  abode  permanently  in  the 
cottage  given  him  by  Dr.  Smyttan  on  Malabar  Hill.  She 
did  so,  seconding  the  orders  of  the  physicians,  and  point- 
ing out  that  the  good  air  of  the  higher  region  had  made 
Dr.  Stevenson  a  new  man.  But  Dr.  Wilson  had  persisted 
in  living  among  the  natives  whom  he  sought  to  benefit,  all 
these  thirty  years,  trusting  to  his  almost  annual  tour,  and 
an  occasional  holiday  at  Poona  or  Mahableshwar,  for  the 


572  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1862. 

restoration  of  such  robustness  as  may  be  possible  in  the 
tropics.  Now,  when  the  hot  season  of  1862  came  on,  he  was 
fairly  forced  to  reside  in  "The  Cliff,"  which  thenceforth 
became  identified  with  him.  There,  and  in  a  guest-chamber 
which  he  added,  he  kept  open  house  for  English  and  Natives. 
Thence  it  was  his  delight,  on  coming  up  from  the  day's  toil 
at  Ambrolie,  or  before  returning  to  it  in  the  morning,  to  watch 
the  glories  of  the  scene  from  the  busy  harbour  away  to  the 
Western  Ghauts,  as  he  sat  at  work  in  his  library,  or  pointed 
out  to  his  friends  the  spots  of  historical  and  scientific  interest. 
The  house  soon  became  more  than  classical  in  its  associations  ;T 
his  death  made  it  sacred. 

Hardly  had  he  taken  permanent  possession  of  "  The  Cliff  " 
when,  on  the  9th  June  1862,  the  United  States  Senate 
decreed  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  all  territories  of  the  Union. 
The  secession  of  South  Carolina,  eighteen  months  before,  had 
another  meaning  also,  which  Bombay,  of  all  cities,  was  the 
first  to  feel,  if  not  intelligently  to  recognise.  For  five  years 
the  cotton  trade  of  the  world  was  transferred  from  the  Southern 
States  of  the  Union  to  Western  India — from  New  Orleans 
to  Bombay.  The  raw  cotton  of  India  rose,  in  price,  from 
threepence  to  nineteenpence  the  pound,  and  the  export 
gradually  doubled  in  quantity.  The  normal  value  of  the 
export  and  import  trade  of  the  one  port  of  Bombay,  in  mer- 
chandise and  treasure,  had  gradually  risen  during  Dr.  Wilson's 
residence  to  forty  millions  sterling  in  value,  or  nearly  half 
that  of  all  India.  In  the  year  1865-66,  when  the  effect  of 
the  American  civil  war  told  most  fully,  that  value  was  almost 
doubled,  having  risen  to  £75,693,150,  exclusive  of  Sindh, 
which  increased  it  to  above  eighty  millions  sterling,  equal  to 
the  ordinary  sea-board  trade  of  Bengal,  Madras,  and  Burma. 
Whereas  in  1860-61,  the  year  before  that  war  began  to  tell, 
Bombay  received  only  seven  millions  sterling  for  355  J  mil- 

1  See  page  214  of  that  model  Hand-book,  Maclean's  Guide  to  Bombay.   1875. 


1863.]  EISE  OF  PEICES  IN  INDIA.  573 

lions  of  Ibs.  of  cotton,  in  the  last  year  of  the  war  she  got 
upwards  of  thirty  millions  sterling  for  little  more  than  the 
same  quantity,  or  380 J  million  Ibs. 

This  was  only  one,  though  the  chief,  of  a  series  of  causes 
which  had  raised  prices  in  India  at  a  rate  disproportionate  to 
that  throughout  the  civilised  world.  The  gold  discoveries 
had  been  working  contemporaneously  with  the  Eussian  War, 
which  transferred  the  fibre  and  seed  trade  of  Europe  to  Cal- 
cutta ;  with  the  Mutiny  campaigns  which  poured  into  India 
an  army  and  the  materiel  of  war  on  a  scale  not  witnessed  since 
Napoleon  Buonaparte  exhausted  France ;  with  the  progress 
of  public  works  made  from  borrowed  capital  to  the  amount  of 
a  hundred  millions  sterling ;  and  finally  with  the  Hindostan 
famine  in  1860-61.  The  consequent  rise  of  prices  in  a  poor 
country,  with  only  a  silver  currency,  was  alarming.  First  in 
Eastern  India  Government  had  been  driven  to  appoint  Mr. 
H.  Eicketts  commissioner  for  the  revision  of  civil  salaries  and 
establishments.  Then,  when  the  wave  threatened  to  engulf 
Bombay  in  1863,  Sir  Bartle  Frere  nominated  a  commission  to 
report  on  "  the  changes  which  had  taken  place  during  the 
preceding  forty  years  in  the  money  prices  of  the  principal 
articles  of  consumption,  in  the  wages  of  skilled  and  unskilled 
labour,  and  in  house  rents  at  the  principal  military  stations." 
Their  conclusion  was  this — since  1829  the  prices  of  grain  had 
trebled,  and  were  in  1864  double  the  average  of  1860-63 ; 
meat  and  other  necessaries  had  doubled  in  price ;  wages  had 
increased  fifty  per  cent ;  the  hire  of  carriage  had  gone  up 
from  200  to  400  per  cent.  Contrasted  with  Bengal,  Bombay 
prices  were  pronounced  double  or  treble,  and  in  some  cases  at 
famine  rates. 

Visiting  Bombay,  as  an  outsider,  at  the  height  of  the 
mania  in  1864-65,  and  one  of  the  earliest  to  make  the  journey 
by  mail-cart  across  the  province  and  Central  India  to  the 
railway  at  Agra,  we  witnessed  a  state  of  things,  economic  and 


574  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1864. 

social,  which  no  report  could  gauge.  In  the  five  years  during 
which  the  cotton  market  of  the  world  was  transferred  from 
New  Orleans  to  Bombay,1  Western  India  received  eighty 
millions  sterling  over  and  above  the  normal  price  of  her  pro- 
duce before  and  since.  So  far  as  this  reached  the  cultivators 
it  was  well.  That  it  largely  reached  them,  in  spite  of  their 
ancestral  usurers  backed  by  the  civil  court  procedure,  has  of 
late  been  unhappily  proved  by  the  quantities  of  silver  orna- 
ments sent  down  to  the  local  Mint,  in  years  of  enhanced  land- 
tax  and  repeated  scarcity  and  famine.  So  far  as  the  sudden 
profit  could  be  utilised  for  the  public  good  it  was  also  well. 
Against  the  fatal  mismanagement  of  the  semi-Government 
Bank  of  Bombay  must  be  set  Sir  Bartle  Frere's  sale  of  the 
land  on  which  the  walls  of  the  old  fort  stood,  to  form  a  fund 
for  the  creation  of  New  Bombay.  But  the  bulk  of  the  profit 
was  literally  thrown  into  the  sea,  and  with  it  the  reputation  and 
the  happiness  of  not  a  few  of  the  leading  European,  Parsee,  and 
Hindoo  merchants  and  bankers  of  the  province.  The  catas- 
trophe culminated  in  1867,  in  the  fall  of  the  old  Bank  of 
Bombay,  which  led  even  members  of  the  Government  of 
India  to  recommend  the  prosecution  of  the  guilty  parties  in 
the  criminal  courts ;  in  the  collapse  of  the  fund  for  building 
New  Bombay,  which  necessitated  an  addition  to  the  ever- 
increasing  Debt  of  India ;  in  the  flight  of  speculators  like  him 
who,  after  buying  the  Government-House  at  Dapoorie  with 
paper,  left  an  umbrella  as  his  assets ;  and  in  the  exposure  of 
countless  scandals  under  the  insolvent  jurisdiction  of  the 
High  Court  by  Mr.  Chisholm  Anstey,  who  as  an  acting  Judge 
was  no  less  pitiless  to  the  gambling  traders  than  he  had 
proved  to  be  to  the  obscene  high  priests  of  Krishna.  But 
England  cannot  throw  a  stone  at  Bombay,  for  it  was  in  the 
year  before  1867  that  Overend,  Gurney,  and  Company  had 
led  the  panic  race. 

1  See  the  description,  from  the  spot,  in  the  Times  of  24th  January  1865, 
and  subsequently. 


1864.]  THE  SPECULATIVE  MANIA  IN  BOMBAY.  575 

The  millions  which  might  have  enriched  and  beautified 
Bombay  and  its  varied  communities,  were  early  and  almost 
altogether  directed  to  the  mania  of  reclaiming  the  foreshore 
of  an  Island  which  already  covered  eighteen  square  miles. 
The  harbour,  beautiful  and  spacious  by  nature,  was  destitute 
of  wharf  and  jetty  accommodation  for  the  necessary  com- 
merce. Before  the  mania,  there  had  been  undertaken  the 
legitimate  and  praiseworthy  enterprise  of  removing  the 
reproach  by  establishing  the  Elphinstone  Company.  The 
prospects  and  success  of  this  really  sound  project  fired  the 
possessors  of  the  surplus  capital  of  the  cotton  trade  with  a 
dream  of  the  profits  to  be  obtained  from  reclaiming  land. 
The  foreshore  of  the  shallow  and  useless  Back  Bay,  fit  only  for 
fisher  craft,  became  the  object  of  the  maddest  of  the  Companies. 
Just  above  that,  forming  the  eastern  side  which  shelters  it 
from  the  great  Indian  Ocean,  rises  Malabar  Hill,  and  look- 
ing down  on  the  generally  peaceful  water  is  "  The  Cliff."  One 
morning  when  we  happened  to  be  breakfasting  with  Dr. 
Wilson,  he  handed  to  us  a  letter  received  by  urgent  mes- 
senger. "  That,"  he  said,  "  will  show  you  to  what  we  have 
come  in  Bombay ;  but  I  do  not  give  the  mania  more  than  a 
year  to  collapse."  It  was  an  offer  from  a  substantially  rich 
native  speculator,  to  purchase  the  cottage  and  garden  for  a 
sum  twenty  times  their  original  value.  He  of  course  put  it 
from  him  at  once ;  for,  all  other  reasons  apart,  he  was  one  of 
the  few  sane  men  of  Bombay  at  that  time.  Officials,  chaplains, 
bankers — none  escaped  the  infection,  it  was  said,  save  three, 
of  whom  he  was  the  chief.  His  entreaties,  his  counsels,  his 
warnings,  especially  to  his  native  friends,  were  in  vain.1  A 

1  In  the  only  fragment  on  the  Tribes  of  "Western  India  which  Dr.  "Wilson's 
death  permitted  him  to  contribute  to  the  Bombay  Gazetteer,  we  find  this 
allusion  in  the  section  on  the  Jains  : — "  They  deny  the  existence  of  a  Creator 
and  an  active  Providence.  "With  them  Grabhava  '  nature'  is  everything,  while 
Is'hvaronasti,  '  there  is  no  operative  Lord,'  is  their  deliberate  doctrine.  I  once 
asked  a  learned  member  of  their  community  in  the  presence  of  the  Rev.  Drs. 


576  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1865. 

half  share  of  the  Port  Canning  Company,  which  threatened 
to  lead  away  Calcutta  also  at  one  time,  was  assigned  to  him, 
but  the  friend  who  did  so  took  care  not  to  tell  him.  When 
some  time  after  it  was  sold  out  and  he  became  aware  of  the  fact 
for  the  first  time,  he  devoted  the  money  (Es.  4194)  to  those 
benevolent  purposes  which  had  seriously  suffered  from  want 
of  support  at  such  a  time. 

These  are  extracts  from  a  journal  sent  to  his  wife  who 
had  gone  to  Scotland  for  six  months  : — 

"  22d  May  1865. — Many  of  the  native  firms  are  in  great  jeopardy 
from  the  time  bargains.  The  Kamas  (a  Parsee  firm)  have  failed  with 
upwards  of  three  millions  sterling  of  responsibilities,  and  involve  many. 
This  is  but  the  beginning  of  the  evil  day,  now  instant. 

"13th  June. — I  breakfasted  this  morning  with  the  Heycocks.  

was  present.  Poor  fellow  !  his  failure,  I  hear,  is  for  £l 00,000.  When 
my  work  at  the  Institution  was  done  I  went  to  the  Union  Press,  where 
our  report  'is  printing.  I  there  met  Dr.  Bhau  Dajt  He  and  his 
brother,  and  most  of  our  reforming  friends  are  ruined  in  their  pecuniary 

positions  by  their  rash  speculations.  Even  Mr. — ,  who  had  lately 

a  fortune  of  ,£300,000  is  in  great  jeopardy.  If does  not  get 

Duff  and  Glasgow,  if  he  had  no  scruple  in  making  the  latter  announcement  to 
his  pupils.  His  answer  was  : — '  We  generally  postpone  it  till  the  third  year 
of  their  discipleship. '  I  have  heard  a  young  Jain  student,  whose  intelligence 
and  conscience  repelled  the  doctrine,  with  the  greatest  distress  of  mind  exclaim 
for  hours  Parame  shvara  che,  Parame  shvara  che  ! — '  There  is  a  Supreme 
Lord,  there  is  a  Supreme  Lord  ! '  In  1864,  when  seeking  to  console  a  bene- 
volent Jain  banker,  who,  owing  to  the  mad  speculation  in  Bombay  of  that 
and  the  preceding  year,  was  involved  in  temporaiy  ruin,  I  said  to  him  '  Were 
you  a  believer  in  providence  I  could  make  an  important  suggestion  to  you.' 
He  immediately  replied,  '  I  do  believe  in  Is'hvara,  though  I  have  been  taught 
otherwise. '  I  then  said  to  him,  '  Concur  with  the  teachings  of  that  Provi- 
dence and  moral  government  :  and  '  set  your  affections  on  things  which  are 
above,  and  not  on  things  which  are  below.'  Their  religious  opinions  and 
feelings  are  often  different  from  those  imposed  upon  them  by  their  teachers. 
I  have  to  add  that  some  of  these  teachers  are  bold  enough  to  challenge  the 
theists  (Is'hvaravadi)  of  the  whole  world  to  discussion,  as  was  the  case  with  a 
Jati  in  the  territories  of  H.  H.  the  Begum  of  Bhopal,  whose  defiant  circular 
was  forwarded  to  me  many  years  ago  by  the  late  accomplished  Mr.  Lancelot 
Wilkinson,  of  the  Bombay  Civil  Service,  whose  comparatively  early  death  was 
a  great  loss  to  Government  and  Oriental  literature." 


1865.]  THE  CRASH  OF  1865-66.  577 

through  (and  his  liabilities  amount  to  two  or  three  millions)  our 
friend  will  almost  certainly  fail.  He  was  lately  seized  with  the  share- 
mania,  and  acted  quite  contrary  to  the  advice  of  all  his  friends.  The 
close  of  this  month  is  by  the  whole  city  looked  forward  to  with  great 
apprehensions.  Mr. —  —  your  fellow  voyager,  has  been  telegraphed 
for  by  his  Financial  Association.  Most  of  the  bankers  are  in  a  most 
perilous  position  as  far  as  the  shareholders  (not  I  believe  the  deposits)  are 
concerned.  The  Bombay  Bank  Shares  have  been  selling  at  a  discount ! 
It  is  hoped,  however,  that  Government  will  come  to  its  aid.  Back 
Bay  shares  have  been  down  to  a  Rs.  1000  premium,  though  bought 
for  Rs.  50,000  in  some  instances. 

"  2%d  June. —  In  the  Government  Gazette  of  this  morning  the 
announcement  of  Sir  Alexander  Grant  as  Director  of  Public  Instruction, 
in  succession  to  Mr.  Howard,  appears.  Mr.  Howard  remains  to  practise 
as  a  barrister  ;  he  has  lost  much  by  late  speculations.  I  had  the  usual 
Marathee  meeting  after  the  Institution  work  in  the  evening.  David 
Manaji  is  now  out  of  employment  in  consequence  of  the  curtailment 
of  the  Back  Bay  works.  I  wish  our  friends  would  allow  us  to  take  him 
into  the  employment  of  the  mission,  according  to  his  request  ;  but  our 
prospects  for  the  present  year  are  very  low,  owing  to  the  great  losses 
following  the  bursting  of  the  share  bubble. 

"  30th  June. — I  went  through  my  ordinary  duties.  Much  anxiety 
felt  throughout  the  city  on  account  of  the  morrow  being  settlement  day. 

"  1st  July. — My  lecture  to-day,  after  my  Sanscrit  class,  was  on  the 
History  of  David.  The  payments  on  account  of  time  bargains,  etc.,  have 

to  a  good  extent  been  modified  or  postponed.  Our  friend had  (it 

is  said,  but  I  doubt  it)  £120,000  paid  him  by  one  of  his  creditors,  which 

carries  him  through  his  immediate  difficulties  ;  owes  him 

£350,000  for  shares,  etc.  's  liabilities  are  for  £2,400,000. 

His  assets  are  valued  at  .£1,600,000." 

To  Dr.  MURRAY  MITCHELL. 

"  BOMBAY,  24:th  July  1867. — Since  you  left  India  great  changes, 
both  for  the  better  and  the  worse,  have  occurred.  Bombay  has  had 
her  day  of  unequalled  madness,  and  now  it  has  her  day  of  great  sad- 
ness. The  mercantile  failures  (especially  among  the  natives),  and  the 
losses  to  our  banks,  have  been  astounding  and  far-reaching  in  their 
consequences ;  and  there  has  been  much  fraud  connected  with  them, 
by  which  the  innocent  in  many  cases  have  suffered.  It  is  scarcely  to 
be  wondered  at  that  our  religious  and  philanthropic  Institutions  have 
their  local  resources  much  curtailed,  though  it  is  sad  to  see  retrench- 

2  P 


578  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1865. 

ment  appearing  so  prominent  in  that  direction.  It  is  our  prayer  that 
the  affliction  which  has  fallen  upon  the  city,  in  the  retributive  justice 
of  God,  not  unmingled  with  mercy,  may  be  sanctified  to  many.  The 
native  mind  is  certainly  more  sober  at  present  than  it  has  been  for 
several  years.  The  reforming  party  (including  about  one  hundred  of 
our  mission  friends)  have  founded  a  meeting  for  the  social  worship  of 
God,  but  they  have  not  yet  come  to  a  conclusion  about  the  treatment 
and  practice  of  idolatry  in  their  own  houses.  We  have  some  encourage- 
ment with  the  lads  in  our  Institution.  The  attendance  at  it  is  large, 
but  I  do  not  know  that  our  Christian  influence  over  it  expands  with 
its  extension.  In  other  respects  the  mission  is  getting  on  well.  Colonel 
Tripe  of  Kamptee,  who  was  much  with  the  converts  and  inquirers  lately, 
formed  a  very  favourable  opinion  of  them.  He  presented  each  of  them 
with  a  book  on  practical  religion,  which  he  gave  them  at  an  entertain- 
ment which  they  provided  for  him  in  the  Institution.  The  ordination 
of  Baba  Pudmanjee  at  Poona  is  appointed  for  the  8th  of  August." 

Gradually,  after  the  Mutiny,  Bombay  became  the  port  of 
arrival  and  departure  for  Anglo-Indians,  as  the  railways 
extended  eastward  and  westward  between  it,  Madras,  and  the 
metropolis  of  Calcutta.  Thus  the  flow  of  guests  through 
"The  Cliff"  steadily  increased,  till  it  might  be  said  that  its 
hospitable  owner  became  the  best  known  man  in  India  as 
well  as  Bombay.  From  the  first  Viceroy  Lord  Canning,  and 
his  truly  noble  wife,  to  the  visit  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  he 
was  always  in  request  as  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend,  amid 
the  antiquities  not  only  of  Bombay  but  of  Salsette,  Karla,  and 
elsewhere.  No  distinguished  person  visited  the  Governor 
without  seeking  an  introduction  to  "the  king  of  Bombay." 
Of  these  continuous  hospitalities  and  intercourse  we  find  few 
traces  in  his  correspondence,  for,  much  as  he  delighted  in 
them,  they  were  too  much  a  part  of  his  everyday  life  to 
demand  chronicling,  save  when,  as  in  Lord  Lawrence's  case, 
they  crossed  his  one  great  work.  The  thirtieth  anniversary 
of  his  landing,  and  the  passing  of  that  statesman  through 
Bombay,  led  him  to  write  thus  to  Dr.  Tweedie  : — 

"  I   should   require    every  missionary   now    coming   to    India    to 


1865.]  JOHN  LAWRENCE.  579 

pass  an  examination  in  the  vernacular  before  his  induction  as  a  full 
missionary.  The  Church  Missionary  Society  is  here  acting  on  this 
principle.  It  is  one  the  propriety  of  which  cannot  for  a  moment  be 
disputed.  I  intend  to  show  cause  in  it  to  yourself  in  a  distinct  letter. 
I  have  lately  received  two  letters  on  the  subject  from  Bengal,  but  I 
intend  to  discuss  it  entirely  free  of  personal  and  local  considerations. 
I  do  not  think  that  the  missionaries  are  always  to  blame  in  the  matter. 
We  have  thrust  work  prematurely  upon  them ;  and  we  cannot  blame 
them  for  neglecting,  in  the  first  instance,  those  studies  for  which  we 
have  left  them  no  leisure. 

"  To  India  I  feel  a  growing  attachment  from  year  to  year,  its  very 
woes  and  miseries,  in  which  I  am  constantly  making  new  discoveries, 
increasing  the  tender  regard  which  I  cherish  in  its  behalf.  I  feel  no 
despair  in  connection  with  any  of  its  interests.  I  see  that  it  is  a  part, 
an  important  part,  of  the  Saviour's  purchased  inheritance,  and  I  believe 
that  ere  long  it  must  become  His  possession.  My  only  regret  is  that 
I  can  do  so  little  to  advance  its  interests.  They  will  not  fail  in  the 
hands  of  Him  who  has  on  His  vesture  and  on  His  thigh  a  name  written, 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.  I  feel  much  encouraged,  in  connec- 
tion with  its  present  destiny,  by  a  conversation  I  had  last  night  with 
Sir  John  Lawrence,  who  proceeds  to  Europe  by  this  mail.  He  is 
certainly  one  of  the  most  courageous  of  men,  both  physically  and 
spiritually,  his  Christian  principle  regulating  and  controlling  all  his 
movements.  His  judgment  and  tact  are  equal  to  his  courage.  The 
very  appearance  of  such  characters  on  the  Indian  scene  on  the  day  they 
have  been  specially  wanted,  is  a  pledge  from  God  of  His  purposes  of 
mercy  towards  this  great  and  interesting  land." 

Again,  we  find  him  mourning  the  death  of  Bishop  Carr, 
in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Farish ;  seeking  to  comfort  the  widow  when 
announcing  the  movement  from  Serampore  to  raise  a  fund 
in  commemoration  of  the  services  of  the  accomplished  Dr. 
Buist ;  and  bidding  farewell  to  old  friends  on  their  final  de- 
parture home,  like  Mr.  Eraser  Tytler,  Mr.  Harkness,  and  Sir 
Bartle  Frere.  To  one  who  has  proved  himself  the  most 
learned  and  generous  of  true  pundits  in  his  own  Edinburgh, 
as  lie  long  was  the  friend  of.  trie  Christian  education  of  the 
Hindoos  at  Benares  and  elsewhere,  Dr.  John  Muir,  C.I.E.,  he 
writes  of  Sanscrit  MSS.  Dr.  Hanna  he  welcomes  as  the  new 


580  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1862. 

superintendent  of  the  Foreign  Missions  of  his  Church  at  home, 
and  delights  him  with  a  report  of  the  success  of  Mikhail 
Joseph's  mission  in  South  Arabia.  Besides  the  glimpses  given 
by  extracts  from  his  letters  to  these,  the  best  idea  of  that  happy 
life  at  "  The  Cliff"  will  be  gained  from  the  bare  notes  regard- 
ing its  visitors  made  by  his  niece,  Miss  Taylor. 

To  Dr.  HARKNESS. 

11  May  9th  1862. — I  cordially  bid  you  Adieu,  in  the  proper  sense 
of  the  word.  Its  Gallican  origin  recalls  to  me  the  fact  that  in  early  life 
we  were  together  at  the  French  classes  of  Mr.  Wells,  and  others  of  more 
importance  in  our  Alma  Mater.  How  many  of  our  friends  and 
acquaintances  have  left  this  sublunary  scene  since  we  entered  on  our 
studies  !  Our  career  in  India,  even,  has  been  a  long  one.  I  guess  that 
it  is  not  without  emotion  that  you  leave  this  great  country,  for  the 
enlightenment  of  which  you  have  done  so  much  ;  though  I  can  under- 
stand you  wish  to  spend  the  evening  of  your  days  in  your  highly- 
favoured  native  land.  Stand  up  for  India  till  your  latest  hour.  I 
believe  that  a  glorious  future  destiny  is  in  reserve  for  it  ;  and  that  the 
moral  movement  which,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  is  to  have  this  issue, 
has  already  commenced.  To  that  movement  your  labours  have  effectively 
contributed.  I  feel  so  much  interested  in  it  in  my  own  department  of 
labour  that  I  consider  myself  highly  privileged  in  being  permitted  to 
continue  at  my  post,  the  importance  of  which  constantly  rises  in  my 
estimation.  I  shall  have  pleasing  remembrances  of  all  our  agreeable 
intercourse  and  co-operation  ;  and  while  I  am  here  you  will  have  a 
warm  and  faithful  friend  in  Bombay.  What  an  exodus  of  friends  from 
India  I  am  having  this  year  ! " 

To  JOHN  MUIR,  Esq.  "  22d  May  1862. 

"  MY  DEAR  MR.  MUIR. — By  Colonel  Lang  I  sent  you  such  litho- 
graphed Sanscrit  works  procurable  in  Bombay  as  seemed  to  me  to  fall 
under  your  order.  I  have  since  seen  the  Ramayana  (of  the  Northern 
recension,  I  think)  on  sale  for  Es.  25  or  Us.  30.  Should  you  wish  a 
copy  of  this  work  I  shall  be  happy  to  send  you  one.  It  is  neatly  got 
up.  An  old  copy  of  the  Vishnu  Ptirana  will  be  sent  to  you  when  I 
get  down  to  Bombay.  The  owner  is  having  it  copied  before  parting 
with  it.  For  this,  as  well  as  the  lithograph  works  sent,  Colonel  Lang 
left  money  with  my  Vishnoo  Shastree.  It  may  be  useful  to  Mr.  Williams 
at  Oxford,  who  tells  me  he  is  editing  the  Vishnu  Pumna.  This  same 


1862.]          LETTERS  TO  DR.  JOHN  MUIR  AND  DR.  HANNA.  581 

Shastree  lias  been  wandering  through  the  country  to  find  a  copy  of  the 
Mahabhashya  of  Patanjali,  with  the  commentary  of  Kayata  and  the 
Vivavarna  of  Nagliojee  Bhatta.  He  has  at  last  found  one  in  excellent 
order,  but  the  owner  will  not  part  with  it.  He  asks  Ks.  450  for  a 
copy  to  be  made  of  it,  and  duly  revised  and  compared  verbatim  with  the 
original.  Pray  mention  this  to  Dr.  Goldstiicker,1  that  he  may  judge  of 
the  propriety  of  ordering  this  work  or  not.  The  demand  made  for  it 
is  above  the  sum  mentioned  in  your  memorandum,  but  I  do  not  think 
it  is  extravagant,  as  the  work  is  said  to  be  equal  to  100,000  slokas  in 
size.  The  Shastree  has  found  a  copy  of  the  Commentaries  on  the 
Mimansa,  by  Sabar  Soami,  and  by  Tutata,  for  a  transcription  of  which 
Rs.  100  are  asked.  Are  these  wanted  at  this  rate  ?  Of  the  Commentary 
of  RashaJcrishna,  etc.,  he  has  not  yet  been  able  to  hear  anything.  I 
find  him  good  at  hunting  out  MSS." 

"  27th  June  1862. — By  to-day's  mail  I  send  to  your  address  the 
copy  of  the  Vishnu  Purana,  of  which  I  lately  wrote.  The  MS.  is  a 
very  excellent  one.  The  Shastree,  who  procured  it  under  my 
directions,  paid  only  Rs.  40  for  it.  The  Rs.  10  which  thus  remained 
of  the  sum  left  by  Colonel  Lang  (Rs.  50)  I  have  given  to  the  Shastree 
for  his  journey  to  and  from  Poona,  etc.  The  postage  of  the  MS.  to 
Europe,  and  of  a  printed  volume  on  the  Vallabhacharya  trial  (which 
I  also  send  to  you)  I  pay  myself,  in  acknowledgment  of  your  kindness 
in  sending  me  the  Rig-  Veda  in  the  Roman  character. 

"  The  institutor  of  the  [scheme  for  prizes  for  essays  on  the  Vedas 
will  feel  greatly  obliged  to  you  if  you  will  kindly  bring  it  to  the  notice 
of  Sanscrit  students  in  Europe,  as  you  may  have  opportunity.  His 
generous  proposal  originated  in  my  lectures  on  Ancient  India  last 
season,  and  was  communicated  first  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dhunjeebhoy.  It 
will  certainly  call  attention  to  your  important  works  among  others." 

To  Rev.  Dr.  HANNA.  «  26th  July  1862. 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  HANNA. — We  have  been  very  glad  to  learn  that,  on 
the  retirement  of  our  excellent,  able,  and  zealous  friend  Dr.  Tweedie, 
you  have  accepted  the  important  office  of  Convener  of  our  Foreign 
Missions  Committee.  "We  look  forward  to  the  prospect  of  having 
much  pleasant  and  profitable  intercommunion  with  you,  and  of  receiving 
very  valuable  services  at  your  hands.  We  have  noticed  lately,  with 
great  satisfaction  and  gratitude,  a  revival  of  the  interest  felt  in  Scotland 
in  connection  with  our  enterprise  in  this  great  land,  and  we  look  for 
corresponding  results." 

1  See  page  496. 


582  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1864. 

VISITOKS  TO  BOMBAY  IN  1863-70,  WITH  WHOM  DR.  WILSON 
HAD  SOME  INTERCOURSE. 

1863.  Dec.  3d — Messrs.  Russell,  Jeffrey,  and  Brewin,  at  breakfast. 
They  belonged  to  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  made  a  tour  in  India, 
visiting  the  different  missions. 

12th. — Dr.  Cotton,  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  at  breakfast.  Bishop  Gell 
in  Bombay  at  the  same  time. 

1864.  Jan.  4th. — Mr.  Pease  at  breakfast,  a  Quaker  from  Darling- 
ton, cousin  of  Mr.  Pease,  M.P.  for  Darlington.     Dr.  Wilson  took  him 
over  the  Institution  and  ice  factory. 

13£/i. — Mr.  Ferguson,  editor  of  Colombo  Observer,  at  dinner. 

25th. — Dr.  Wilson  went  with  Colonel  Ballard  and  his  brother  to 
the  Vehar  Lake  and  Kanheri  Caves. 

30th. — Mr.  Pease,  and  Mr.  Tumor  (from  Lincolnshire,  and  grandson 
of  Earl  of  Winchilsea)  went  with  Dr.  Wilson  to  see  the  Parsee  Dokh- 
mas  (Towers  of  Silence).  Mr.  Tumor  travelled  in  India,  and  walked 
from  Simla  to  Lahore. 

Feb.  1st. — Mr.  Pease  and  Mr.  Tumor  came  to  the  Institution  to  see 
the  girls  of  the  Native  Female  Schools  examined.  For  many  years  it  was 
Dr.  Wilson's  practice  to  have  a  meeting  on  the  first  Monday  of  every 
month  for  prayer  for  missions,  after  which  all  the  girls  of  the  Female 
Schools  were  gathered  together  and  examined. 

25th. — Dr.  Wilson  lectured  in  Town-Hall  on  "  Bombay  during  the 
Last  Two  Hundred  Years."  Mr.  Pease  at  lecture,  and  also  at  a  party 
the  next  evening  to  meet  Mr.  Small,  who  had  just  arrived. 

March  3d, — Bishop  of  Victoria,  Hongkong,  and  Mrs.  Smith,  at 
breakfast,  and  went  to  see  the  Parsee  tombs. 

8th. — Sir  Mordaunt  Wells  called  on  Dr.  Wilson  at  the  Institution, 
on  his  way  home  from  Calcutta. 

16th. — Maharaja  Dhuleep  Singh  arrived  in  Bombay.  He  went  to 
Bombay  with  the  body  of  his  mother.  She  died  and  was  buried  in 
England,  but  afterwards,  in  deference  to  the  wishes  of  the  Sikhs,  her 
body  was  taken  to  India,  and  burned  on  the  banks  of  the  Godavery, 
near  Nasik.  The  Maharaja  did  not  go  to  Nasik  ;  a  Sirdar  from  the 
Punjab  performed  the  ceremonies. 

20th,  Sunday. — Dhuleep  Singh  at  the  Free  Church,  and  attended 
a  service  in  the  Native  Church  at  two,  in  Hindostanee,  and  took  the 
Communion  with  the  Native  Christians. 

21st. — Dr.  Wilson  showed  the  sights  of  Bombay  to  the  Maharaja. 


1864.]  VISITORS  TO  BOMBAY  AND  DR.  WILSON.  583 

23d,  Wednesday. — Maharaja  came  to  meeting.  Dr.  Wilson,  from 
his  arrival  in  India,  until  two  or  three  years  before  his  death,  had  a 
meeting  of  friends  in  his  house  every  "Wednesday  evening,  to  read  the 
Bible  and  converse  on  the  passage.  The  Native  Christians  who  knew 
English  usually  attended,  and  sometimes  non-Christian  Natives  came. 

25th. — Large  party  of  Europeans  and  Native  friends  to  meet  the 
Maharaja. 

26th. — Dr.  "Wilson,  Mr.  Bowen,  and  Mr.  Ballantine,  American  mis- 
sionaries, dined  with  Maharaja. 

27th,  Sunday. — Maharaja  at  Free  Church,  and  at  two  at  a  service  in 
Hindee  in  the  Institution.  Dr.  Wilson  had  the  service  in  Hindee  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Sirdars  and  their  followers  who  had  come  from  the 
Punjab  to  meet  the  Maharaja. 

28th. — Dr.  and  Mrs.  House,  seventeen  years  missionaries  in  Siam 
at  breakfast.  Dr.  Wilson  took  Dr.  House  to  the  Institution. 

8th.—  Maharanee's  body  burned  at  Nasik.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson, 
Miss  Taylor,  Madame  Surtoo,  a  Native  lady,  who  had  been  in  England 
with  the  Maharanee  and  became  a  Christian  there,  her  little  boy,  and 
the  Maharaja,  spent  the  day  quietly  at  the  Vehar  Lake,  Salsette. 

12th. — Party  iri  the  Institution  given  by  the  Maharaja  to  all  the 
missionaries  and  Native  Christians  in  Bombay;  300  Natives  were  pre- 
sent ;  the  Maharaja  wore  the  Star  of  India. 

13th. — Maharaja  called  to  say  good-bye.  He  took  a  very  decided 
stand  in  Bombay  as  a  Christian. 

22d. — Dr.  Wilson  lectured  on  board  the  "  Ajdaha,"  to  sailors,  on 
"The  Shores  of  the  Eed  Sea." 

June  23d. — Dr.  Livingstone  called.  Dr.  Wilson  took  him  over 
the  Institution.  Dr.  Livingstone  came  to  Bombay  for  a  few  days  on 
his  way  home  from  Africa.  He  crossed  from  Africa  in  the  "  Lady 
Nyassa,"  a  small  steamer,  115  feet  long  and  14  feet  broad,  built  for 
lake  navigation,  with  a  crew  of  seven  Natives  who  had  never  seen  the 
sea  before.  They  came  down  with  him  to  the  coast  at  Zanzibar.  He 
did  this  in  the  monsoon,  too.  Somehow  they  entered  the  harbour  of 
Bombay  unobserved,  and  Dr.  Livingstone  landed  with  no  one  to  meet 
him — no  one  knew  he  was  coming — and  found  his  way  in  a  deluge  of 
rain  in  an  old  shigram  to  Dr.  Wilson's.  The  Governor  was  in  Poona. 
Dr.  Livingstone  left  with  Dr.  Wilson,  to  be  educated,  two  African  boys, 
Chuma  and  Wykatane.  They  attended  the  Institution  for  a  year  and 
a-half,  and  learned  a  little  English.  They  boarded  in  a  Native  Chris- 
tian family.  They  were  baptized  by  Dr.  Wilson  at  Dr.  Livingstone's 
request,  just  before  he  took  them  back  to  Africa,  in  the  end  of  1865 


584  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1865. 

Dr.  Livingstone  thought  it  would  make  a  good  impression  on  their 
minds,  and  be  a  safeguard  to  them  in  their  future  life.  Every  one 
knows  how  faithfully  Chuma  kept  by  Dr.  Livingstone  to  the  last,  and 
brought  his  body  to  England.  Wykatane  had  been  rescued  by  Bishop 
Mackenzie  and  his  party  from  a  slave-catching  gang,  and  was  a  great 
favourite  of  Bishop  Mackenzie's.  On  Dr.  Livingstone's  last  journey 
he  became  lame,  and  had  to  be  left  behind. 

Dec.  2  3d. — Dr.  Wilson  went  with  Sir  Bartle  Frere  to  visit  the 
Kajah  of  Dongurpore.  He  was  staying  in  Dr.  Wilson's  old  house  at 
Ambrolie,  and  Sir  Bartle  recalled  how  he  himself  had  gone  there  as  a 
young  man  with  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Dr.  Wilson. 

1865.  Jan.  1 6th. — Dr.  Wilson  lectured  in  the  Town-Hall  on  "  The 
Wandering  Tribes  of  India." 

Feb.  1st. — Sir  Dinkur  Kao,  ex-minister  of  Sindhia,  called. 

Sept.  Ilth. — Dr.  Livingstone  arrived  from  England  on  his  way  to 
make  his  last  journey  of  discovery  in  Africa.  He  called  on  Dr.  Wilson 
the  day  after  his  arrival,  but  Dr.  Wilson  was  out.  He  went  imme- 
diately to  Poona  to  see  the  Governor,  and  to  Nasik  to  arrange  about 
some  of  the  African  Christians  there  going  with  him  to  Africa. 

October  6th. — Dr.  Livingstone  came  from  Poona  and  stayed  with 
Dr.  Wilson  till  the  20th— a  fortnight. 

*ltli. — Dr.  Wilson  and  Dr.  Livingstone  walked  to  see  the  temples 
at  Walkeshwar  (Malabar  Point). 

Sth. — Dr.  Livingstone  at  the  Free  Church,  and  at  the  Marathee 
Service  in  the  Native  Church. 

9th. — Dr.  Livingstone  called  with  Sir  Bartle  Frere  on  the  Sultan 
of  Zanzibar. 

I  Oth. — Dr.  Livingstone  went  with  Captain  Leith  to  select  men  from 
the  Marine  Battalion  to  go  with  him  to  Africa. 

I 1  th. — Durbar  in  Town-Hall  in  honour  of  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar. 
Dr.  Livingstone  there. 

12th. — Dr.  Livingstone  lectured  on  Africa  in  the  Town-Hall.  Dr. 
Wilson  said  it  was  the  most  enthusiastic  meeting  he  had  ever  seen  in 
Bombay.  The  lecture  was  very  simple.  Dr.  Livingstone  said  much 
the  same  things  and  in  much  the  same  way  as  he  did  in  conversation. 
A  subscription  was  begun  then  which  soon  realised  more  than  Ks.  7000, 
to  help  the  expedition.  Dr.  Livingstone  refused  to  accept  it  as  a  per- 
sonal gift.  The  Bombay  branch  of  the  Geographical  Society  wished 
to  present  him  with  an  address,  and  Captain  Sherard  Osborn  was  to 
read  it,  but  Dr.  Livingstone  declined  to  come  forward,  and  said  he 
would  rather  have  it  if  he  should  be  spared  to  come  back  from  Africa. 


1866.]  DR.  LIVINGSTONE.  585 

19th. — Drove  through  the  native  town  to  see  the  Diwallee  illumi- 
nations. 

Nov.  13th. — Dr.  Wilson  called  on  Lord  Edward  Seymour  (eldest 
son  of  the  Duke  of  Somerset)  at  the  Governor's  bungalow,  Malabar 
Point.  Lord  E.  Seymour  went  out  to  travel  in  India.  He  visited  the 
Institution,  and  examined  some  of  the  classes  himself,  and  took  a  great 
interest  in  all  that  he  saw.  He  died  soon  after,  at  Belgaum,  from  the 
effect  of  injuries  he  got  when  hunting  a  bear. 

14th. — Dr.  Wilson,  Dr.  Livingstone,  Lord  Edward  Seymour,  and 
some  others  went  to  Elephanta. 

Dec.  6th. — Dr.  Wilson,  Dr.  Livingstone,  and  a  party  of  gentlemen 
went  to  the  Kanheri  Caves,  Salsette.  Party  was  arranged  by  Mr. 
Alexander  Brown,  son  of  Dr.  Charles  Brown,  Edinburgh. 

10th. — Chuma  and  Wykatane  baptized  by  Dr.  Wilson  in  presence 
of  Dr.  Livingstone. 

1 2th. — Large  party  at  Dr.  Wilson's  to  meet  Dr.  Livingstone. 

21st. — Dr.  Wilson  to  Nagpore  to  the  Exhibition. 

1866.  1st  Jan. — Dr.  Livingstone  and  the  two  boys  came  to  say 
goodbye. 

3d,  Wednesday. — Dr.  Livingstone  sailed  for  Africa  in  the  "  Thule." 
Dr.  Livingstone  was  engaged  most  of  the  time  he  was  in  Bombay 
in  preparations  for  his  expedition.  He  also  visited  Goojarat.  The  Rev. 
Joseph  Taylor  (son  of  the  Eev.  Mr.  Taylor,  of  Belgaum),  of  the  Irish 
Presbyterian  Mission  in  Goojarat,  was  at  college  with  Dr.  Livingstone, 
and  they  lodged  together  in  Glasgow.  Dr.  Livingstone  left  for  Africa, 
accompanied  by  eight  or  nine  Christian  Africans  from  Nasik,  the 
same  number,  I  think,  of  Sepoys  of  the  Marine  Battalion  Bombay  (they 
deserted  him  in  Africa,  and  found  their  way  back  to  Bombay  with  a 
story  of  his  having  been  murdered),  Chuma  and  Wykatane,  and  the 
Africans  who  had  come  across  with  him  in  1864.  They  stayed  in  Bom- 
bay while  he  was  in  England,  and  used  to  come  to  Dr.  Wilson's  to  get 
news  of  him.  Dr.  Livingstone  wished  to  have  no  European  companion. 

In  January  1866  Lady  Franklin  visited  Bombay,  and  Dr.  Wilson 
saw  her  a  few  times.  She  spent  one  evening  with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson. 

March  23d. — Dr.  Mullens,  Calcutta,  stayed  with  Dr.  Wilson  on 
his  way  home,  and  lectured  in  the  Institution  on  "  Young  Bengal." 

Oct.  23d. — Mrs.  Wilson  took  Miss  Carpenter  to  visit  the  Boarding 
School  and  Native  Female  Day  Schools. 

Dec.  14th. — Dr.  Wilson  lectured  in  Institution  on  "  Foundational 
Facts  of  Paradise  Lost,"  the  first  lecture  of  a  series  on  University  Sub- 
jects, under  the  direction  of  the  Missionary  Conference. 


586  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1869. 

1867. — In  the  beginning  of  this  year  Mr.  Tinling  visited  India, 
chiefly  to  address  English-speaking  Natives  on  the  subject  of  religion. 
He  stayed  for  a  short  time  when  in  Bombay  with  Dr.  Wilson. 

Nov. — In  this  month  Dr.  Norman  Macleod  and  Dr.  Watson  arrived 
in  Bombay.  They  stayed  with  two  young  merchants.  They  spent 
most  of  a  day  with  Dr.  Wilson,  going  over  the  Institution,  and  another 
day  in  the  Boarding  School  and  Female  Schools,  and  calling  on  several 
native  gentlemen.  They  attended  the  Marathee  service,  and  sat  down 
with  the  native  congregation  at  the  Communion.  Dr.  Macleod  read 
Wee  Dame  in  the  Town-Hall,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Scottish  Orphanage. 

1868.  March  20.— Mr.  Clark  of  Gya,  and  Dr.  Watson  called. 
23d. — Keshub  Chunder  Sen  came  to  breakfast. 

Oct.  23d. — Dr.  Wilson  visited  the  Rajah  of  Kolhapore. 

Dec.  21s£. — Dr.  Wilson  attended  a  reception  at  Parell  for  Lord 
and  Lady  Mayo  and  Lord  Napier. 

29th. — Foundation-stone  of  University  laid  by  Lord  Mayo,  Dr. 
Wilson,  Vice-Chancellor.  Dr.  Wilson,  after  the  ceremony,  went  to 
Elephanta  with  the  Government-House  party. 

1869.  Jan.  10. — Miss  Carpenter  at  the  Native  Church. 
I6th. — Chevalier  von  Scherzer  called. 

28th. — Native  Church  opened.   First  service  in  the  morning  at  eight. 

March  17. — Dr.  Wilson  and  I  started  for  Calcutta.  Lord  Napier 
was  a  fellow-passenger  to  Nagpore,  on  his  way  to  the  Durbar  at 
Umballa.  We  stayed  a  day  or  two  at  Nagpore  with  the  Coopers, 
then  went  on  to  Serampore  and  Calcutta. 

April  3. — Large  party  at  Mr.  Fyfe's,  of  Europeans  and  Native 
Christians,  to  meet  Dr.  Wilson. 

From  Serampore  we  went  to  Benares,  and  spent  a  day  with  Messrs 
Hutton  and  Blake,  London  Mission  ;  next  to  Mirzapore,  and  stayed 
with  Mr.  Sherring  ;  Allahabad,  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Walsh,  American 
Mission ;  Cawnpore,  Agra,  Umballa,  with  Dr.  Morrison ;  Subathoo, 
with  Dr.  Newton,  Medical  Missionary.  At  Simla  Dr.  Wilson  was  the 
guest  of  Lord  Mayo  for  about  ten  days.  His  old  friend,  Sir  Donald 
M'Leod,  was  there  at  the  same  time,  also  Sir  Douglas  Forsyth. 

June  28. — Dr.  Wilson  dined  with  Mr.  H.  Rivett-Carnac,  at 
the  Byculla  Club,  to  meet  General  Ylangally,  Russian  ambassador  from 
China. 

Aug.  31s£. — Lord  Napier  went  home.  Dr.  Wilson  went  to  say 
goodbye  to  him  at  the  Boree  Bunder  Station. 

•    Oct.  1st. — Rev.  Mr.  Long,  Calcutta,  staying  with  Dr.  Wilson.    Party 
of  natives  to  meet  Mr.  Long. 


FIRST  STEPS  TO  LIVINGSTON! A.  587 

Nov.  I3th. — Bishop  of  Madras  called.  Dr.  Wilson  dined  with. 
Mr.  Fox  to  meet  him. 

16th. — Captain  Beaumont  and  Mr.  J.  Candlish,  M.P.  for  Sunder- 
land,  at  breakfast. 

29£/i. — Mr.  Shaw  called — the  traveller  who  had  been  a  year  in 
Kashgar. 

1870. — Dr.  Wilson  went,  in  January,  to  Jalna  and  Nasik. 

22c£. —  Dr.  Wilson  called  on  Dr.  Prime,  editor  of  New  York 
Observer,  travelling  with  a  party  round  the  world.  Dr.  Elmslie,  Cash- 
mere, at  tea. 

Feb.  1st.  —  Dr.  Wilson  lectured  in  Town -Hall  on  "  Marathee 
Country  and  People." 

Feb.  3d. — Dr.  Wilson  at  a  party  given  by  Chief  of  Jamkhundee. 

17th. — Addresses  to  students  and  native  Christians  of  Bombay. 

19th. — Left  Bombay  for  Scotland. 

It  was  a  Bombay  officer,  Kichard  F.  Burton,  who,  in  1857, 
set  out  from  Aden  to  East  Africa  to  find  the  great  lake 
reported  by  the  Church  missionaries  at  Zanzibar.  That  proved 
to  be  Tanganika.  In  1860  Baron  Yon  der  Decken  first  struck 
out  what  has  thus  far  proved  a  more  important  route  into 
the  lake  region  of  Africa,  that  to  Lake  Nyassa  from  Kilwa 
along  a  portion  of  which  the  Messrs.  Moir  have  recently  con- 
structed a  road.1  The  first  reference  to  that  promising  line 
of  commerce  and  civilisation  which  we  find  is  in  this  letter 
from  Lord  Elphinstone,  when  Governor  of  Bombay.  It  refers 
also  to  the  little  Waghur  war  at  the  Krishna  shrines  of  Beyt 
and  Dwarka ;  to  the  case  of  a  Scottish  boy  rescued  from  the 
wilds  of  Central  Asia;  and  to  the  iniquities  of  Louis  Napoleon's 
"  free  "  slave  trade,  which  Lord  KusselTs  convention  stopped, 
only  by  sacrificing  our  Indian  coolies  to  this  day. 

"PooNA,  Qth  October  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  WILSON. — I  am  very  sorry  to  find  that  you  have 
already  left  Malabar  Point.2  I  was  going  to  write  to  you  that  I  should 


1  See  the  Notes  on  the  Country  between  Kilwa  and  TanganiJca,  by  Jj 
Stevenson,  Esq.  of  Glasgow,   who,  with  Mr.  William  Mackinnon  and  other 
philanthropic  capitalists,  is  opening  up  Eastern  Africa. 

2  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson  had  been  residing  in  the  Government  House  there 
after  an  attack  of  fever. 


588  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1869. 

not  return  before  Monday  when  I  received  your  letter  telling  me  that 
you  were  going  to  leave  the  Point  yesterday.  I  know  that  there  is  a 
very  sensible  difference  between  the  climate  there  and  at  Parell  at  this 
season,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  is  much  more  healthy  than  any 
inland  spot  in  the  Island. 

"  I  read  what  you  say  about  Beyt  and  Okamundel  with  much  in- 
terest. I  know  very  little  about  Kathiawar,  and  especially  that  corner 
of  it ;  and  I  do  not  even  know  of  what  race  or  tribe  the  Waghurs  are. 
I  am  somewhat  relieved  by  your  account  of  the  character  of  the 
inhabitants  at  large,  for  hitherto  I  have  looked  upon  the  expedition  as 
a  political  necessity  only  ;  and  my  last  recommendations  to  Colonel 
Donovan  were  to  spare  the  people  as  much  as  possible,  and  to  remem- 
ber that  they  were  not  in  rebellion  against  us  but  against  the  Gaikwar, 
whose  officers  had  probably  oppressed  them.  As  they  had  seized  about 
150  boats  belonging  to  Bombay,  we  had  so  far  a  direct  quarrel  with 
them,  but  otherwise  our  object  was  to  keep  the  peace,  and  to  prevent 
the  spread  of  rebellion  and  confusion  into  other  districts,  rather  than 
the  punishment  of  the  Waghurs. 

"  I  was  very  glad  to  see  that  you  had  taken  the  youth  John  Camp- 
bell. I  fear  that  he  is  not  a  very  promising  pupil,  but  he  has  had 
many  disadvantages  in  early  education,  and  if  it  please  God  he  may 
yet  be  made  an  honest  and  useful  man.  I  really  think  that  if  he  can 
be  reclaimed  he  may  be  of  very  great  use  either  to  Government  or  to 
your  Mission,  and  I  do  not  see  why  he  should  not  be  to  both,  but  he 
must  first  be  thoroughly  reclaimed,  and  untaught  a  great  deal  I  fear.  Mr. 
Boswell  gave  a  very  bad  account  of  him,  but  he  probably  did  not  make 
sufficient  allowances  for  previous  circumstances.  He  should  of  course 
be  taught  English  (which  by  the  way  he  has  not  learned  during  the  two 
or  three  years  that  he  has  been  at  Mr.  Boswell's)  ;  but  he  should  not 
be  allowed  (if  possible)  to  forget  his  Pushtoo  and  Persian.  If  he  is 
ever  to  be  of  use  in  the  countries  where  he  has  been  wandering  for  so 
many  years  he  must  keep  up  his  knowledge  of  their  languages.  I 
think  he  is  more  likely  to  be  of  service  in  this  way  (if  he  can  be 
trusted)  than  in  any  other;  he  showed  a  great  disinclination  to  be 
taught  mechanics.  It  was  proposed  to  bring  him  up  as  an  engineer, 
but  how  he  was  to  be  taught  without  knowing  English  I  really  cannot 
imagine.  I  suppose  only  the  practical  acquaintance  with  machinery 
which  would  enable  him  to  work  an  engine  in  a  steam-vessel  or  on  a 
railway. 

"  I  received  an  interesting  packet  yesterday  from  Captain  Rigby  at 
Zanzibar.  I  know  you  take  an  interest  in  Africa,  and  you  may  like  to 


1869.J  LOUIS  NAPOLEON'S  "FREE"  SLAVERY.  589 

know  that  a  German  traveller,  sent  out  by  the  Bavarian  Government, 
has  lately  arrived  on  the  coast  with  the  intention  of  proceeding  to  the 
Lake  Nyassa,  and  making  further  discoveries.  The  French  have  got 
into  some  difficulty  at  Madagascar,  where  they  have  been  endeavouring 
to  establish  a  settlement  on  the  Western  Coast.  Since  Louis  Napoleon's 
proclamation  about  the  slave-trade  the  French  have  not  shipped  any 
slaves,  but  before  that  they  were  actually  kidnapping  them  (not  content 
to  pay  five  dollars  a  head  for  them)  and  shipping  them  for  Bourbon  under 
convoy  of  a  French  man-of-war.  I  am  sorry  to  add  that  several 
American  clipper- built  vessels,  under  Spanish  colours,  are  shipping 
slaves  on  the  coast  of  Mozambique  for  Cuba.  The  place  of  embarka- 
tion is  Ibo  or  Ebo.  The  Portuguese  governor  of  Mozambique  is  anxious 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  traffic,  but  apparently  his  authority  is  not  much 
felt  at  the  more  distant  ports ;  and  at  Ibo  the  local  authorities  connive 
at  the  export,  and  receive  a  gratuity  from  the  slave-dealers  of  ten 
dollars  per  head  upon  each  slave  shipped.  I  am  glad  that  the  French 
Government  has  put  a  stop  to  the  slave-trade  under  French  colours, 
and  under  the  protection  of  the  Imperial  Navy.  The  Portuguese 
Government  is  so  honestly  anxious  to  put  a  stop  to  it  that  I  have  no 
doubt  that  when  the  facts  are  brought  to  their  notice  they  will  remove 
the  offenders,  and  take  effectual  steps  to  prevent  the  thing  going  on  ; 
of  course  Captain  Rigby's  reports  will  be  brought  to  their  notice  by  Her 
Majesty's  Government. — Yours,  most  truly,  ELPHINSTONE." 

But  it  was  Dr.  Livingstone,  in  many  respects  a  man  like 
Dr.  Wilson,  who,  after  discovering  Lake  Ngami  so  early  as 
1849,  and  crossing  South  Africa  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Zambesi  and  the  Indian  Ocean  in  1854-5,  opened  up  Lake 
Nyassa  itself,  and  pronounced  it  the  spot,  of  all  Africa,  for 
such  a  missionary  settlement  as  had  killed  the  slave-trade 
by  lawful  commerce  at  Sierra  Leone.  His  great  Zambesi 
expedition,  which  lasted  from  1858  to  1864,  confirmed  his 
desire  to  see  Nyassa  the  centre  of  light  to  Eastern  Africa. 
His  passing  visit  to  Bombay  in  June  1864,  described  by  Miss 
Taylor,  was  repeated  in  September  1865,  when  he  returned 
from  England  to  organise  in  that  capital  the  greatest  of  all 
his  journeys  of  exploration,  in  which,  after  seven  years,  he 
died.  We  remember  well  the  enthusiasm  which  his  address, 


590  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1873. 

first  at  Poona  and  then  in  Bombay,  excited  all  over  India, 
when  he  compared  Eastern  Africa  physically  to  the  low  Kon- 
kan  and  high  Ghauts  and  uplands  of  Western  India,  and 
declared  that  all  Great  Britain  was  doing  for  the  people  of 
India  she  must  yet  do  for  the  negroes  of  Africa.  And  there, 
he  said,  Nyassa  is  the  spot.  How  well  his  vision  is  being 
realised,  first  by  Mr.  Young,  RN".,  who  went  to  help  him,  and 
then  by  his  companion  Dr.  Stewart  of  Lovedale,  who  together 
have  there  established  the  Livingstonia  settlement  of  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland,  every  year  is  revealing. 

In  all  the  public  enthusiasm  which  bore  rich  pecuniary 
fruit  for  the  last  expedition,  and  in  organising  the  details,  as 
in  the  relaxation  of  delightful  social  intercourse,  Dr.  Wilson 
was  foremost.  But  perhaps  his  best  gift  to  Livingstone  was 
the  Christian  training  of  the  two  little  slave-boys  left  with 
him  eighteen  months  before — Chuma  and  Wykatane.  The 
baptism  was  to  both  the  heroic  missionaries  a  joy,  and  all 
know  the  fruit  it  bore.  The  beginning  of  1866  saw  Dr. 
Livingstone  at  Zanzibar  with  a  letter  of  commendation  from 
Sir  Bartle  Frere  to  the  Sultan,  and  charged  with  the  pleasant 
duty  of  presenting  to  his  Highness  the  gun-boat  "Thule," 
in  which  he  had  crossed  the  Indian  Ocean,  as  a  gift  from 
the  Government  of  Bombay.  From  that  sad  hour  on  the 
27th  April  1873,  when  Livingstone  made  his  last  note  in 
his  Journal,  Chuma  became  leader  of  the  caravan,  and 
brought  safely  to  Lieutenant  Cameron  the  precious  remains 
which  find  fit  resting-place  in  the  nave  of  Westminster  Abbey. 
To  him,  and  to  Susi,  Amoda,  and  the  two  Nasik  boys,  his 
faithful  comrades  since  1864-5,  Mr.  Waller,  the  editor  of 
the  Last  Journals,  has  expressed  the  nation's  gratitude.  And 
hardly  less  is  due  to  Wykatane  of  whom,  in  his  Nyassa,  Mr. 
Young,  K.N.,  gives  us  this  glimpse,  showing  how  the  light  from 
Bombay  had  penetrated  all  the  darkness  of  the  slave-boy's  life, 
and  continued  to  shine,  however  dimly,  as  years  passed  on. 


1873.]  CHUMA  AND  WYKATANE.  591 

The  scene  is  the  jungle  at  night,  near  Livingstonia,  among  the 
Maviti;  the  time  is  September  1876.  "  I  called  to  Wykatand, 
who  lay  in  the  next  hut,  and  asked  him  who  was  singing  :  he 
replied  that  it  was  he.  On  telling  him  to  repeat  it  I  found  it 
was  one  of  the  chants  used  by  the  missionaries  sixteen  years 
ago  in  the  hills  at  Magomero.  Eemembering  how  much 
pains  Dr.  Livingstone  had  taken  with  him,  and  good  Dr. 
Wilson  too,  I  asked  him  if  he  remembered  anything  of  the 
former  days.  He  said,  '  This  is  what  Dr.  Livingstone  taught 
me: — 

'  This  night  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep, 
I  give  my  soul  to  Christ  to  keep, 
If  I  should  die  before  I  wake, 
I  pray  to  God  my  soul  to  take.     Amen.' 

In  the  long  interval  since  he  had  seen  white  men  he  had 
forgotten  nearly  all  the  English  he  ever  knew;  but  those 
lines,  together  with  some  few  simple  questions  and  answers 
taught  him  by  Dr.  Wilson  he  could  repeat."  When,  at  the 
end  of  1864,  we  presided  at  the  examination  of  Dr.  Wilson's 
college,  Chuma  and  Wykatane  were  prominent  in  the  class  of 
catechumens  gathered  from  all  the  natives  of  the  East.  Dur- 
ing Livingstone's  wanderings  in  the  last  seven  years  of  his 
life  he  wrote  to  no  friend  so  frequently  as  to  Dr.  Wilson,  and 
the  letters  were  posted  at  Aden  by  Mr.  Henry  M.  Stanley. 
They  were  so  much  read  in  Bombay  as  to  have  been  almost 
wasted  away,  and  this  is  the  only  trace  we  now  find  of  com- 
munications of  surpassing  interest  and  sacred  associations  : — 

From  Kev.  Dr.  WILSON,  Bombay,  to  His  EXCELLENCY  the  VICEROY, 
Simla,  per  POLITICAL  DEPARTMENT,  BOMBAY. 

«  1st  August  1872. 

"  I  have  a  letter  from  Dr.  Livingstone  dated  '  about  twelve  days  east 
of  Tanganyika,  24th.  January/  and  '  Unyanyembe,  13th  March  1872.' 
The  loss  of  all  supplies  sent  to  him  he  attributes  to  the  circumstance 
of  their  having  been  intrusted  to  slaves  (who  should  never  have  been 
employed  by  Government  officials)  instead  of  Pagazi  (carriers).  He 


592 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 


[1867. 


acknowledges  relief  extended  to  him  by  Stanley,  and  expects  to  finish 
his  research  in  two  years,  embracing  the  discovery  of  the  ancient 
fountains  of  Herodotus,  if  they  exist.  He  also  gives  information  about 
the  slave  trade  of  Eastern  Africa  and  the  connection  with  it  of  British 
subjects,  etc.,  which  I  shall  privately  communicate  to  Government." 

Still  more  remarkable  than  in  Chuma's  case  was  the 
providence  which  in  1837  led  Dr.  Wilson  unconsciously  to 
prepare  two  Abyssinian  youths  for  the  deliverance  of  their 
country  by  Lord  Napier's  expedition  of  1867.  We  have 
told  how,  in  the  former  year,  Dr.  Wolff  sent  to  Bombay  for 
instruction  in  Dr.  Wilson's  college,  and  residence  under  his 
roof,  Gabru  and  Maricha  Warka,  with  their  father,  a  high 
officer  in  the  Abyssinian  army.  The  two  lads  became  most 
active  catechists,  occasionally  accompanied  Dr.  Wilson  in  his 
tours,  and  left  him  only  at  Aden,  whence,  in  1843,  he  sent 
them  with  his  benediction  to  evangelise  their  own  people,  and 
the  oldest  but  most  corrupt  of  Christian  Churches.  They 
found  the  almost  chronic  conflict  of  chief  with  chief  raging, 
and  attempted  by  personal  intercourse  and  discussion  to 
influence  the  priests.  Very  close,  and  at  this  time  very 
pathetic,  seems  their  correspondence  with  Dr.  and  especially 
with  Mrs.  Wilson  to  have  been.  They  were  at  first  sup- 
ported by  the  kirk-session  of  the  native  church  in  Bombay, 
which  thus  early  sought  to  evangelise  the  regions  beyond. 
After  a  visit  to  the  old  scenes,  on  Dr.  Wilson's  return  from 
Scotland  they  settled  down  at  Adowah,  where  for  a  long 
time  they  conducted  a  vigorous  mission  school,  encouraged 
by  the  periodical  epistles  from  Ambrolie.  What  a  picture 
this  is  of  the  influence  of  the  old  mission  home,  in  a  letter 
written  by  Maricha  from  Aden  on  his  return  to  his  native 
country  for  the  second  time,  in  April  1849  :— 

"  Yes  !  it  is  a  dream  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  it  is  a  mystery  and  an 
awful  dream  that  troubles  my  thoughts.  Let  me  only  be  thinking  of 
that  family  where  I  was  brought  up  from  my  childhood,  especially  when 
now  and  then  I  think  myself  to  be  seated  round  that  family  altar  ; 


1867.]  HIS  PART  IN  THE  ABYSSINIAN  EXPEDITION.  593 

beside  me  I  see  Hormasdjee  and  Gabru,  and  there  I  see  you  both — you, 
Sir,  whom  we  love  like  a  father,  and  by  you  sitting  one  whom  we  love 
like  a  mother.  I  see  the  large  family  Bible  and  the  Psalm-book  in 
your  hands.  I  see  you  meeting  round  that  family  altar  to  offer  up  a 
living  sacrifice.  I  hear  you  praying,  especially  for  Ethiopia's  soon 
stretching  out  her  hands  unto  God.  From  up-stairs  let  me  take  you 
down  where  I  used  to  meet  among  the  different  denominations  that 
have  come  out  from  darkness  to  light,  and  from  the  kingdom  of  Satan 
to  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  From  thence  let  me  convey  you  to  that 
holy  spot,  which  spot  is  to  be  desired  more  than  all  the  dwellings  of 
Jacob.  There  I  hear  the  harmonious  songs  of  Zion,  that  carry  the  heart, 
as  it  were,  to  the  third  heaven.  And  what  shall  I  not  say  more  of 
Zion  ?  yes,  I  might  tell  of  the  pure  doctrines  that  are  taught  Sabbath 
after  Sabbath,  but  the  time  will  not  allow  me  to  do  so.  Alas  !  is  it 
true  that  I  am  to  dwell  with  a  people  who  have  no  fear  of  God  in 
their  sight  ?  Yes,  my  soul,  thou  art  no  more  in  that  holy  society, 
thou  art  no  more  round  that  family  altar  where  thou  usedst  often  to  sit, 
where  thou  usedst  to  be  glad  when  they  said  unto  thee, '  Let  us  go  up 
to  the  house  of  God.'  Now  then  is  the  time  for  thee  to  cry  out  with 
a  loud  voice,  '  My  soul  longeth,  yea  fainteth,  for  the  courts  of  the  Lord  ; 
my  heart  and  my  flesh  crieth  out  for  the  living  God.'" 

The  years  passed  as  the  young  men  married  and  carried 
on  their  mission-school,  when  they  suddenly  became  of  vast 
importance  to  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  Bombay  and  the 
Viceroy  of  India.  From  the  third  day  of  1864  the  chief 
Theodorus,  who  called  himself  emperor  of  Abyssinia,  had  kept 
in  confinement  Consul  Cameron  and  several  German  mission- 
aries. When  Mr.  Rassam,  an  Armenian  friend  of  Sir  Austen 
Layard,  along  with  Dr.  Blanc  and  Lieutenant  Prideaux  of 
the  Bombay  army,  had  been  sent  as  an  envoy  for  their  release, 
they  too  were  put  in  chains.  Still  neither  Lord  Palmerston 
and  the  one  party,  nor  Lord  Stanley  and  the  other  party 
moved,  in .  spite  of  the  most  persistent  representations  from 
the  Government  of  India.  The  shame  of  it  was  such  that, 
anonymously  at  the  time,  Sir  George  Yule  asked  us  to  publish 
his  offer  of  Es.  20,000  to  fit  out  a  volunteer  expedition  to 
rescue  the  captives  who  had  languished  under  the  power  of 

2Q 


594  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1867. 

a  madman  for  nearly  four  years.  That  was  on  the  1st  August 
1867.  The  close  of  that  year  saw  an  imperial  expedition  of 
50,000  men,  including  followers,  on  the  way  to  Abyssinia,  and 
the  advance  guard  above  the  Ghauts  at  Senafe,  whence  the 
march  to  Magdala  and  its  fall  proved  a  holiday  excursion  that 
cost  several  millions  sterling.  How  much  of  the  facility  with 
which  the  work  was  accomplished  was  due  to  the  two  Abys- 
sinian students  of  Dr.  Wilson,  may  be  imagined  from  these 
circumstances.  They  had  risen  to  be  the  official  councillors 
of  Kassai,  the  Prince  of  Tigre",  who  steadfastly  supported  the 
British  in  spite  of  the  urgent  overtures  of  Egypt  and  Turkey. 
In  frequent  telegrams  and  despatches  Lord  Napier  of  Magdala 
warmly  acknowledged  their  services.  The  special  correspond- 
ents with  the  expedition  were  even  more  emphatic,  the  most 
experienced  of  them 1  writing  thus — "  The  belief  that,  in  con- 
nection with  the  campaign  in  Abyssinia,  England  owed  more 
to  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland's  Mission  Institution  in  Bom- 
bay than  it  does  to  any  institution  in  the  Presidency,  the 
Government  itself  and  the  commissariat  department  not 
excepted,  was  entertained  by  not  a  few." 

In  truth,  when  her  Majesty's  Government  had  tardily 
resolved  on  the  expedition,  the  first  men  consulted  by  Lord, 
then  Sir  Eobert  Napier,  were  two  missionaries.  Mr.  Blumhardt, 
half  a  century  before  a  Church  Missionary  in  the  country, 
and  then  in  the  peaceful  Bengalee  villages  of  Christian 
Krishnaghur,  was  asked  by  telegram  for  information,  and 
was  invited  to  accompany  the  force  as  interpreter.  At  Lord 
Lawrence's  request  we  at  once  published  at  Serampore  the 
Amharic  vocabulary  which  he  hastily  drew  up,  since  old 
age  denied  him  the  privilege  of  going  in  person.  Dr.  Wilson 
received  the  following  letters  from  the  Quartermaster-General 
of  the  army — the  first  of  a  correspondence,  in  which  his  multi- 
farious information  and  experience  also  were  called  into  requi- 

1  The  late  Mr.  R.  E.  Shepherd,  M.A.,  of  the  Times  of  India. 


1867.]  GABRU  AND  MARICHA  WARKA.  595 

sition  on  all  details,  from  the  history  of  the  ancient  church  of 
Ethiopia  to  a  certain  breed  of  camels  well  adapted  for  mountain 
work.  All  his  replies  were  submitted  to  the  new  Governor, 
Sir  Seymour  Fitzgerald,  who  had  succeeded  Sir  Bartle  Frere. 

"22d  August  1867. 

"  MY  DEAR  Dr.  WILSON. — Now  that  Government  have  determined 
to  send  an  expedition  into  Abyssinia  I  should  feel  very  much  obliged 
by  your  advice,  and  every  information  you  could  give  me  in  regard  to 
procuring  a  good  interpreter  and  other  aid  for  the  Intelligence  Depart- 
ment. Of  course  the  movement  of  the  main  body  depends  upon  our 
success  in  procuring  land  transport,  but  within  a  month  or  so  an 
advanced  brigade  may  possibly  be  sent  to  effect  a  lodgement  on  the 
Abyssinian  table-land  at  Dixan  or  thereabouts. 

"A  good  reliable  interpreter  and  other  means  of  gaining  good 
intelligence  are  indispensable.  His  Excellency  Sir  Kobert  Napier 
desired  me  to  write  to  you  this  morning,  and  I  said  that  I  had  yester- 
day mentioned  the  subject  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Weatherhead,  who  spoke 
to  me  regarding  Mr.  Blumhardt  some  time  ago,  but  the  latter  is,  I 
fancy,  too  aged  to  undertake  such  a  task  now.  I  mentioned  to  Sir 
Robert  that  you  had  two  relatives  of  a  principal  family  in  Tigre  at 
your  school,  and  I  said  I  would  write  and  ask  your  advice  upon  the 
subject  of  interpreters,  and  intelligence  generally. — Believe  me,  yours 
very  sincerely,  B.  PHAYRE." 

"  30th  August. — I  have  to  thank  you  very  much  for  the  valuable 
information  and  advice  given  in  your  note  relative  to  interpreters  and 
intelligence  in  connection  with  the  Abyssinian  Expedition.  I  took 
it  at  once  to  his  Excellency  Sir  Robert  Napier,  who  telegraphed  to  Mr. 
Blumhardt,  asking  him  to  give  certain  information  which  we  now 
require,  and  inviting  him  to  accompany  the  Expedition  should  he  be 
in  a  position  to  do  so.  You  will  see  that  his  Excellency  the  Governor 
wishes,  if  possible,  an  interview  to  be  arranged  between  Colonel  Mere- 
wether  and  Mr.  Gabru  Warka  and  Mr.  Maricha  Warka.  Colonel  Mere- 
wether  will  leave  Bombay  on  the  10th  proximo,  and  proceed  to  Massowa, 
and  you  could  perhaps  give  him  letters  to  these  gentlemen.  It  is 
essential  that  this  reconnoitering  party  should  communicate  with  reli- 
able agents,  upon  whose  information  guidance  as  to  further  measures 
would  be  obtained.  Perhaps  the  persons  in  Bombay  to  whom  you  refer 
could  give  us  information  also  regarding  the  possibility  of  our  securing 
the  lowland  tribes  (Badaween)  on  the  coast  between  Amphila  and 


596  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1868. 

Massowa  to  assist  us  with,  land  transport  and  in  other  ways.  If  you 
will  kindly  think  over  these  matters  and  give  me  a  few  lines  express- 
ing what  appears  to  you  to  be  the  best  arrangements  under  the  circum- 
stances, I  will,  as  before,  take  your  note  to  his  Excellency  Sir  Eobert 
Napier,  and  we  can  decide  what  should  be  done.  B.  PHAYRE." 

Colonel  Phayre  secured  the  services  also,  as  interpreter, 
of  Mr.  Mikhail  Joseph,  who  as  Bible  colporteur  had  made 
a  remarkable  tour  through  south-west  Arabia.  Lord  Napier 
gladly  accepted  the  Bible  Society's  gift  of  books  to  the  soldiers 
of  the  expedition,  and  to  the  hospitals. 

The  result,  to  himself,  of  the  war,  for  the  humane  and 
bloodless  fruits  of  which,  then  and  since,  Dr.  Wilson  is  in  a 
large  sense  responsible,  was  further  work  for  the  people  of 
Abyssinia.  With  the  approval  of  the  Government  of  India 
General  Merewether  entrusted  to  his  training  two  Anglo- 
Abyssinian  girls,  and  two  Abyssinian  boys,  Pedro  and  Wuldee 
Magios,  one  of  whom  had  helped  the  captives,  while  the  other 
had  been  presented  by  Prince  Kassai  to  the  conqueror.  Lord 
Napier  desired  to  place  the  son  of  Theodorus  under  his  care, 
to  fit  the  boy  for  a  career  in  Abyssinia  hereafter,  but  the 
English  authorities  decided  that  the  youth  should  be  trained 
in  England,  where  he  is  now  a  cadet  in  the  Eoyal  Military 
College.  So  the  radius  of  light  and  life  from  the  Bombay 
mission  went  on  ever  extending.  The  prince  whom  ,Gabru 
and  Maricha  counselled  so  well,  has,  as  Negoos  and  King 
Johannes,1  given  to  the  people  of  Abyssinia  a  degree  of  peace 
and  prosperity  which  only  the  unprovoked  aggression  of  the 
Mussulman  Khedive  of  Egypt  has  broken  for  a  time. 

1  See  that  most  interesting  narrative  of  travel  by  E.  A.  de  Cosson,  F.  K.  G.  S. , 
The  Cradle  of  the  Blue  Nile :  A  Visit  to  the  Court  of  King  John  of  Ethiopia. 


CHAPTEK  XIX. 

1867-1871. 
SECOND  AND  LAST  VISIT  HOME. 

The  Shadow  Darkening — Sir  Bartle  Frere  Leaves  Bombay — Isabella 
Wilson's  Death — Legislation  of  Sir  Henry  Maine  and  Sir  Fitzjames  Stephen 
— Acts  for  He-marriage  of  Converts  and  Marriages  between  non-Christian 
Natives — Testimonial  from  the  Inhabitants  of  Bombay  on  Fortieth  Indian 
Anniversary — Addresses  from  University  and  Asiatic  Society — Summoned 
to  be  Moderator  of  General  Assembly — Addresses  to  the  Assembly — Modern 
Criticism  and  Missionary  Translators — Work  at  Home — Portrait — Evidence 
before  Commons'  Committee  on  the  Opium  and  Excise  System — Return  to 
Bombay. 


"  Thy  converse  drew  us  with  delight, 
The  men  of  rathe  and  riper  years  : 
The  feeble  soul,  a  haunt  of  fears, 
Forgot  his  weakness  in  thy  sight. 

"  On  thee  the  loyal-hearted  hung, 

The  proud  was  half  disann'd  of  pride, 
Nor  cared  the  serpent  at  thy  side 
To  flicker  with  his  treble  tongue. 

"The  stern  were  mild  when  thou  wert  by, 
The  flippant  put  himself  to  school 
And  heard  thee,  and  the  brazen  fool 
"Was  soften'd,  and  he  knew  not  why  ; 

"  While  I,  thy  dearest,  sat  apart, 

And  felt  thy  triumph  was  as  mine  ; 
And  loved  them  more  that  they  were  thine, 
The  graceful  tact,  the  Christian  art. 

"  For  who  can  always  act  ?  but  he, 

To  whom  a  thousand  memories  call, 
Not  being  less  but  more  than  all 
The  gentleness  he  seem'd  to  be, 

"So  wore  his  outward  best,  and  join'd 
Each  office  of  the  social  hour 
To  noble  manners,  as  the  flower 
And  native  growth  of  noble  mind  ; 

"  Nor  ever  narrowness  or  spite, 
Or  villain  fancy  flitting  by, 
Drew  in  the  expression  of  an  eye, 
Where  God  and  Nature  met  in  light, 

"  And  thus  he  bore  without  abuse 

The  grand  old  name  of  gentleman, 
Defamed  by  every  charlatan, 
And  soil'd  with  all  ignoble  use." 

TENNYSON  :  In  Memoriam. 

"Need  I  name  Dr.  Wilson  of  Bombay  —  a  distinguished  scholar,  with 
few  equals  in  his  knowledge  of  Oriental  philosophy  and  theology.  When  I 
met  such  men  I  appreciated  more  than  ever  the  glory  of  their  self-sacrifice, 
and  the  grand  position  occupied  by  them  towards  the  Church  at  home, 
towards  the  heathen,  and,  let  me  add,  towards  the  Anglo-Indian.  They  have 
devoted  their  lives  to  the  civilising  and  Christianising  of  our  fellow-subjects 
in  India,  while  their  salaries  are  such  as  no  city  clerk  would  accept — such,  in- 
deed, as  many  of  the  natives  whom  they  have  educated  would  despise.  I 
here  lamented  more  than  ever  the  ignorance  and  ingratitude  of  professing 
Christians  of  all  churches,  who  seldom  think  of  them  or  pray  for  them.  I 
keenly  felt  then,  as  I  have  often  felt  since,  that  so  far  from  our  missionaries 
being  unworthy  of  us  we  are  unworthy  of  them  !  " 

NORMAN  MACLEOD  :    Peeps  at  the  Far  East. 


1367.]          FAREWELLS  OF  FRIENDS SIR  BARTLE  FRERE.          599 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE  year  1867  cast  over  Dr.  Wilson  the  first  shadow  of 
that  darkness  beyond  which  is  the  everlasting  light.  In  his 
long  course  of  nigh  forty  years  he  had  seen  band  after  band 
of  temporary  English  settlers  in  the  land  come  and  go ;  he 
had  himself  trained  generations  of  native  youth,  and  built  up 
a  native  church,  colleges,  and  schools.  As  friend  departed 
after  friend  he  bewailed  the  exodus  from  a  land  which 
needed  all  their  experience  and  their  energy.  The  last  was 
the  Governor  whom  he  had  received  at  Ambrolie  fresh  from 
Haileybury,  and  had  admitted  to  an  almost  life-long  in- 
timacy. Sir  Bartle  Frere  turned  from  the  honours  and  the 
applause  which  attended  his  departure  from  Bombay,  to 
spend  one  of  the  last  days  there  with  the  missionary  among 
his  schools  and  college  students.  Still  invested  with  all  the 
influence  of  his  office,  his  Excellency,  having  personally 
examined  the  youth,  expressed  to  them  his  personal  convic- 
tion that  religion  is  all  important  as  an  element  of  education. 
He  warmly  commended  the  life-long  efforts  of  Dr.  Wilson 
and  others  who  sought  to  impart  that  to  the  natives  of  India, 
to  whom  it  could  not  fail  to  be  a  blessing  even  when  they  fall 
short  of  embracing  Christianity. 

As  the  hot  season  passed  into  the  rainy  time,  and  the  one 
really  intolerable  month  of  the  Indian  year,  September,  came 
round,  when  wearied  humanity  pants  for  the  cooling  breezes 
and  reviving  life  of  what  Europe  calls  winter,  Isabella  Wilson 
was  taken  away.  Her  abundant  labours  of  twenty  years, 
in  which  she  had  enjoyed  only  the  combined  rest  and  toil  of 


600  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1867. 

a  six  months'  visit  to  her  sisters  in  Scotland,  precipitated  the 
end.  All  Bombay,  from  the  Chief  Justice  and  Judges  of  the 
High  Court  to  the  humblest  Native  Christian  and  student, 
followed  to  the  Scottish  cemetery  the  remains  of  one  whose 
influence  was  all  the  greater  that  it  had  been  never  obtruded 
yet  ever  present  in  all  that  was  good  in  the  place.  In  her 
own  home,  in  the  native  church,  in  the  central  native 
female  day-school,  in  the  monthly  inspection  of  the  district 
and  other  girls'  schools,  in  the  Beni-Israel  school,  in  the 
native  female  boarding-school,  in  the  Ladies'  Committee  of 
the  Scottish  Orphanage,  in  the  Bible-women's  Association, 
and  in  other  philanthropic  institutions  of  Bombay,  she  had 
proved  so  potent  a  force  that  it  was  difficult  to  realise  how 
these  organisations  could  prosper  without  her.  Her  social 
intercourse  for  the  highest  ends,  with  Hindoo,  Parsee,  Jewish, 
and  Muhammadan  families  had  been  closer  than  that  of  any 
other  English  lady  in  all  India.  What  she  was  to  her  hus- 
band in  his  literary  researches  and  missionary  tours,  which 
taxed  the  courage  and  resources  of  the  bravest  men,  we 
have  partially  seen.  But  the  purest  tribute  to  her  memory 
was  that  which  the  converts  rendered,  the  women  and  the 
girls,  the  catechumens  from  all  the  lands  of  the  East  from 
Abyssinia  to  China,  the  ordained  Natives  who,  in  an  eloquent 
sermon  by  the  Eev.  Dhunjeebhoy  Nowrojee,  expressed  the 
loss  of  the  whole  Church  of  India.  Henceforth,  to  his  own 
last  hour,  Dr.  Wilson  is  cared  for  by  his  niece,  Miss  Taylor. 
All  this  came  upon  him  at  the  time  of  the  preparations  for 
the  Abyssinian  Expedition,  which,  however,  gave  Lord  Napier 
an  opportunity  of  calling  on  him  to  express  warm  sympathy. 
His  own  sorrow  he  manifested  by  erecting  a  female  school, 
as  the  best  memorial  of  one  who  had  given  herself  for  the 
women  of  Bombay. 

Soon  after  his  appointment  as  law  member  of  the  Gover- 
nor General's  Council,  Sir  Henry  Maine  had  been  led  by 


1867.]  SIR  H.  MAINE'S  RE-MARRIAGE  ACT.  601 

Lord  Lawrence  to  devise  a  legislative  solution  of  the  two 
questions — What  relief  should  be  given,  first,  to  Christian 
converts  whose  spouses  refuse  to  join  them,  or  are  prevented 
for  years  from  doing  so ;  and,  secondly,  to  non-Christian  dis- 
sidents from  Hindooism  who  have  conscientious  objections  to 
the  idolatrous  and  suggestively  indecent  marriage  rites  of 
Brahmanism.  This  second  question  was  afterwards  settled 
by  Sir  Fitzjames  Stephen,  so  as  to  satisfy  the  followers  of 
Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  and  even  to  lead  English  Comtists  to 
take  advantage  of  an  Act  under  which  the  parties  must 
declare  that  they  are  not  Christians.  The  Converts  Ee- 
marriage  Bill  had  a  keen  interest  for  all  Christians,  how- 
ever, and  called  forth  ecclesiastical  discussion  for  years.  Dr. 
Wilson  was  consulted  by  Government  on  both  difficulties, 
and  the  assistance  he  gave  to  Sir  Henry  Maine  was  warmly 
acknowledged.  Unlike  the  sacramentarians  who  hold  that 
a  marriage  is  irrevocable  by  whomsoever  made,  even  if  one 
of  the  parties  refuses  for  ever  all  conjugal  duties,  Dr.  Wil- 
son showed,  from  the  early  Fathers  down  to  the  Eeformers, 
that  Scripture  had  been  consistently  interpreted  so  as  to  give 
proper  relief.  He  laid  special  stress  on  the  opinion  of  Basi- 
lius  of  Caesareia,1  because  of  the  great  authority  of  that 
bishop  in  the  Eoman,  Greek,  Syrian,  and  Gothic  Churches. 
The  result  of  a  learned  and  sometimes  bitter  discussion  in 
the  Press  as  well  as  the  Legislative  Council  of  India,  was  the 
most  equitable  Act  under  which,  if  a  wife  persistently  refuses 
to  join  her  converted  husband  (and  vice  versa)  for  two  years, 
notwithstanding  private  opportunities  of  remonstrance  judi- 
cially given,  the  district  courts  may  only  then  pronounce 
divorce.  The  Act  has  worked  extremely  well,  by  affording 
opportunities  to  the  law  to  free  wives  from  such  restraint 
as  we  have  seen  Brahmanism  and  Parseeism  impose  on  in- 
quirers, and  so  to  prevent  divorce.  The  great  jurist  and  the 

1  Epistola  138,  in  which  Basil  cites  1  Cor.  vii.  13-16. 


602  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1869. 

experienced  scholar  were  thus  happily  allied  in  removing 
one  of  the  last  obstacles  to  perfect  toleration.  Nothing  now 
remains  to  be  done  by  the  legislature  save  the  promulgation 
of  a  uniform  rule  or  procedure  for  the  protection  of  the  rights 
of  conscience  of  minors,  in  a  country  where  marriage  takes 
place  at  and  sometimes  before  puberty. 

As  the  14th  of  February  1869  approached,  the  leaders  of 
all  the  communities  in  Bombay,  European  and  Asiatic,  re- 
solved to  honour  their  foremost  man  on  that,  the  fortieth 
anniversary  of  his  arrival  in  Western  India.  Mr.  Sassoon, 
the  Jewish  millionnaire,  and  Dr.  Bhau  Daji,  the  most  learned 
reforming  Brahman,  were  active  in  the  movement,  side  by  side 
with  Mr.  James  Taylor,  secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
and  of  the  Asiatic  Society,  and  with  the  secretary  of  the 
committee,  Mr.  James  Douglas.  The  long  roll  of  subscribers 
and  signatures  in  many  languages  on  the  parchment  sheets, 
represents  all  races,  creeds,  and  classes  in  the  East,  and  all 
varieties  of  Christian  sects.  Although  E~ew  Bombay  was 
still  suffering  from  the  ruin  and  apprehension  that  followed 
the  cotton  mania,  and  the  work  was  rapidly  done,  upwards  of 
Es.  21,000  (£2100)  was  presented  to  the  missionary  on  a  silver 
salver  wrought  by  native  artists,  and  bearing  the  inscrip- 
tion, in  Sanscrit: — "This  salver  was  presented  to  the  Eev. 
John  Wilson,  D.D.,  F.E.S.,  at  a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Bombay,  as  a  mark  of  esteem  for  his  high  personal  character, 
and  in  acknowledgment  of  his  great  services  to  India  in  the 
cause  of  education  and'  philanthropy."  The  design  repre- 
sents him  as  a  missionary  standing  under  the  sacred  peepul 
tree,  a  Hindoo  temple  and  figure  of  Eama  behind,  and  before 
him  a  crowd  of  Asiatics  of  every  cult  and  caste  in  Western 
India,  from  the  learned  Brahman  to  the  ignorant  peasant. 
The  Governor,  Sir  Seymour  Fitzgerald,  presided  at  a  great 
meeting  in  the  Town-Hall  of  Bombay,  on  the  15th  February 
1869,  and  made  the  presentation.  The  Chief- Justice,  Sir 


1869.]  HIS  FORTIETH  INDIAN  ANNIVERSARY.  603 

Eichard  Couch,  assisted.  A  loving  letter  was  read  from  Sir 
Bartle  Frere,  and  the  other  speakers  were  Mr.  Sassoon  and 
Dr.  Bhau  Daji.  Dr.  Wilson  thus  reported  the  event  to  Miss 
Margaret  Dennistoun :  —  "It  is  wonderful  to  think  that 
gratification  has  been  felt  with  the  issue  through  the  whole 
of  India.  Only  one  element  of  my  felicitation  (I  was  humbled 
rather  than  exalted)  was  wanting — the  sympathy  of  her,  the 
beloved  one  who  was  so  lately  removed  from  me.  I  have 
been  weeping  whenever  I  have  been  thinking  of  this  depriva- 
tion. I  always  felt  that  one  quiet  glance  of  her  loving  and 
approving  eye  was  better  to  me  than  the  applause  of  the 
multitude.  Her  love  was  always  an  emblem  to  me  of  that 
of  the  Saviour  Himself."  It  was  characteristic  of  his  whole 
career  and  of  his  unfailing  tact,  that,  agreeing  to  use  the 
interest  only  in  his  philanthropic  and  literary  labours,  he 
should  designate  the  capital  sum  to  aid  the  higher  studies 
of  the  youth  of  Bombay,  "  in  a  form  which  will  be  agreeable 
alike  to  my  European  and  Native  friends."  The  fund  has 
accordingly  devolved  on  the  University  of  Bombay  for  the 
foundation  of  the  John  Wilson  Philological  Lectureship,  to 
which  his  friend  and  executor,  Professor  Peterson,  has  been 
the  first  to  be  appointed.  Dr.  Wilson  desired  that  lectures 
may  thus  be  delivered  "  by  a  competent  European  or  Native 
scholar,  annually  elected  for  the  purpose,  on  either  of  the 
following  classes  of  languages  and  the  literature  in  which 
they  are  embodied : — Sanskrit  and  the  Prakrit  languages 
derived  from  it ;  Hebrew,  and  the  other  Shemitic  languages  ; 
Latin  and  Greek ;  English,  viewed  in  connection  with  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  its  other  sources." 

The  address  of  the  inhabitants  of  Bombay,  followed  by 
one  from  the  Hindoos  and  Muhammadans  of  Nasik,  from 
which  he  had  been  almost  expelled  in  his  first  missionary 
tour,  reviewed  the  whole  course  of  Dr.  Wilson's  work  for  the 
people,  and  thus  expressed  their  own  special  gratitude  : — "  As 


604  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1870. 

citizens  of  Bombay  we  thankfully  acknowledge  that  the 
credit  of  this  city  has  been  upheld  by  the  personal  courtesy 
and  learned  aid  which  distinguished  foreigners  and  others, 
coming  hither  as  visitors  or  for  purposes  of  Oriental  research 
or  Christian  philanthropy,  have  always  received  from  you, 
as  acknowledged  by  them  subsequently  in  their  published 
writings  or  otherwise." 

But  again,  as  in  1842,  it  was  left  to  the  Asiatic  Society 
to  review  his  contributions  to  scholarship,  and  to  the  Uni- 
versity to  acknowledge  his  work  for  the  higher  education. 
Never  before  in  its  history  had  there  been  such  a  concourse 
of  the  members  of  that  Society  as  on  the  17th  Febru- 
ary 1870,  when  it  was  known  that  Dr.  Wilson  had  been 
summoned  to  his  native  country  once  more,  to  fill  the  highest 
office  which  the  democratic  Scottish  Church  can  confer,  that  of 
annual  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly.,  The  Governor, 
who  presided,  after  stating  the  thanks  of  Government  for  his 
political  services,  which,  "as  regards  our  relation  with  the 
people  in  trying  times,  have  been  of  the  utmost  value,"  de- 
clared it  a  happy  thing  that  one  who  had  been  able  to  com- 
bine the  fearless  assertion  of  what  he  believed  to  be  true  with 
a  conciliatory  demeanour  and  tender  respect  for  the  belief  of 
others,  had  been  summoned  to  take  the  chief  part  in  the 
government  of  a  religious  body  who  had  sacrificed  much  for 
the  truth  at  a  time  when  religious  discussion  too  often  means 
animosity  and  estrangement.  Mr.  Justice  Tucker,  Dr.  Bhau 
Daji,  Mr.  Dhunjeebhoy  Framjee,  the  Portuguese  Dr.  J.  N. 
Mendonca,  Mr.  Manockjee  Cursetjee,  and  Messrs.  Wedder- 
burn  and  Connon,  told  successively  what  Dr.  Wilson  had 
done  for  scholarship,  for  literature,  for  education,  for  progress 
of  all  kinds.  Dr.  Wilson's  reply  was  more  generous  to  his 
fellow  members  than  just  to  his  own  researches.  Two  days 
after  he  was  on  his  way  to  Edinburgh.  The  native  journals 
followed  with  their  eulogies  the  now  venerable  apostle,  whose 


1870.]  MODERATOK  OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY.  605 

delight  it  had  been  to  spend  and  be  spent  in  the  service  of 
the  people,  with  an  unselfishness  which  all  admired,  though 
all  did  not  trace  it  to  Him  whom  the  missionary  proclaimed. 
The  office  of  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly  is 
filled,  as  a  rule,  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  six  or  seven 
hundred  members  on  the  first  day  of  its  meeting.  But  the 
Moderator  is  designated  some  months  before  by  those  sur- 
viving who  have  previously  filled  the  chair,  is  approved  of 
after  consultation  by  the  "commission"  of  the  previous 
Assembly,  and  is  requested  by  his  immediate  predesessor  to 
allow  himself  to  be  nominated.  In  this  way  Dr.  Wilson  re- 
ceived a  formal  invitation  from  the  Eev.  Sir  Henry  Wellwood 
Moncreiff,  Bart.,  to  come  home  for  the  Assembly  of  May  1870. 
The  Churches,  like  the  country  generally,  know  so  little  of 
India  till  a  catastrophe  occurs  which  knowledge  might  have 
prevented,  that  the  whole  learning  and  power  of  Dr.  Wilson 
in  his  new  position  proved  a  surprise  to  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland.  Courtesy  of  the  old  school;  knowledge  of  men 
and  their  public  assemblies  ;  promptitude  and  fluency  in  ex- 
pression ;  learning,  rarely  obtrusive  but  always  present ;  and 
grace  of  that  highest  kind  which  comes  down  from  heaven 
alone,  marked  all  his  public  services  and  official  receptions. 
The  time  was  one  when  the  vexed  question  was  near  the 
embittered  stage  —  Whether  the  great  goal  of  one  recon- 
structed Kirk  of  Scotland  could  best  be  reached  by  imme- 
diate union  with  the  earlier  seceders  of  the  United  and 
Eeformed  Presbyterian  Churches,  or  by  waiting  till  the  min- 
ority of  the  Established  Church  atoned  for  the  wrong  they 
have  since  confessed  ?  To  Dr.  Wilson,  it  was  well  known, 
the  immediate  duty  of  union  with  all  like-minded  who  would 
unite  was  plain,  but  he  held  the  balance  fairly  as  became 
one  in  his  judicial  position.  So  long  before  as  in  1864  he 
had  moved  the  Presbytery  of  Bombay  to  "overture"  the 
General  Assembly  for  this  possible  instalment  of  union ;  for 


606  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1870. 

to  one  in  the  distant  high  places  of  the  field  the  still  existing 
divisions  look  both  ludicrous  and  criminal.  Only  on  the  one 
disputed  question  of  the  use  of  hymns  in  public  worship  did 
he,  when  he  had  ceased  to  be  Moderator,  let  out  the  force  of 
his  alternate  scorn  and  ridicule  for  views  which  would  strike 
evangelical  catholicity  out  of  any  Church. 

His  opening  address  as  Moderator  was  directed  to  the 
part  which  Scotland  has  taken  in  the  reception,  propagation, 
and  conservation  of  Christianity.  A  hearer  might  have  sup- 
posed that  he  had  never  been  out  of  Scotland,  but  for  the 
extent  of  his  knowledge  and  the  breadth  of  his  sympathies. 
His  vindication  of  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  did 
justice  to  the  foresight  and  spirit  of  its  authors,  only  now 
beginning  to  be  acknowledged,  while  he  quoted  with  a  keen 
delight  the  motto  of  the  first  Confession  of  1560  :  "  And 
this  glaid  tydingis  of  the  kyngdome  sail  be  precheit  through 
the  haill  warld  for  a  witnes  unto  all  natiouns,  and  then  sail 
the  end  cum."  To  the  then  debated  question  of  National 
Education  he  gave  his  support  with  a  confidence  since  fully 
justified  by  the  religious  stedfastness  of  his  countrymen.  The 
narrow,  the  sectarian,  the  purely  ecclesiastical  found  no 
quarter  from  him.  His  closing  address  was  no  less  fair  in  the 
tribute  to  the  lay  elders  of  his  Church,  and  in  the  remark  when 
alluding  to  the  rationalism  of  the  great  French  scholar — "  This 
I  say,  without  accusing  M.  Eenan  of  playing  false  with  his 
own  convictions  or  depreciating  his  Shemitic  scholarship." 

When  the  report  on  Foreign  Missions  was  read  he  left 
the  chair  and  told  the  story  of  his  life-work  in  words  which 
concluded  with  the  declaration  that,  notwithstanding  his 
forty-one  years'  connection  with  India,  if  he  lived  to  the 
age  of  Methuselah  he  would  consider  it  a  privilege  to  devote 
his  life  to  its  regeneration.  The  General  Assembly  of  1870 
appointed  the  Eev.  Eobertson  Smith,  then  fresh  from  the 
students'  benches  but  of  great  reputation,  as  Professor  of 


1870.]    MODERN  CRITICISM  AND  MISSIONARY  TRANSLATORS.     GO 7 

Hebrew  in  succession  to  Mr.  Sachs  at  Aberdeen.  Eeferring 
to  the  translations  of  the  Scriptures  by  the  Eev.  Dhunjeebhoy 
Nowrojee  into  the  Parsee-Goojaratee  language,  Dr.  Wilson 
said  : — "  The  missionaries  know  and  take  advantage  of  the 
results  of  modern  criticism  ;  not  of  rash,  but  devout,  intelli- 
gent, and  reverent  criticism,  knowing  what  passages  have 
often  been  misunderstood.  We  have  to  deal  in  Bombay 
with  languages  drawing  all  their  technical  terms  from  the 
Sanscrit,  one  of  the  most  wonderful  of  all  languages  in  regard 
to  its  power  of  expressing  human  thought.  We  have  great 
need  of  able  men  in  India  for  biblical  and  other  literary 
work ;  and  if  Mr.  Smith,  who  has  this  day  been  appointed 
a  Professor  of  Hebrew,  will  come  out  to  India  after  he  has 
obtained  a  few  years'  experience  at  Aberdeen,  he  will  find 
there  ample  scope  for  his  linguistic  talents." 

If  the  duties,  ecclesiastical  and  social,  devolving  on  a 
Moderator  are  not  few  during  the  ten  days'  sittings  of  the 
General  Assembly,  those  which  occupy  or  distract  his  year  of 
office  are  formidable.  Every  cause  that  needs  the  preaching 
of  a  popular  sermon ;  every  new  church  that  is  founded  or 
opened;  every  neighbouring  Church  to  which  a  brotherly 
deputation  has  to  be  sent,  in  England,  Ireland,  and  on  the 
Continent,  looks  to  the  Moderator.  To  all  this,  and  especially 
to  his  own  more  special  work  of  stimulating  missionary  zeal, 
Dr.  Wilson  gave  himself  up  with  an  ardour  that  taxed  his 
waning  energies,  as  time  soon  showed.  The  charms  of  his 
talk  and  companionship  in  private  life  were  universally 
recognised  with  a  delighted  surprise,  for  who  knew  anything 
of  Bombay  ?  Dr.  Wilson  was  as  ready  to  lecture  to  the  theo- 
logical students  of  the  Established  Church  in  the  University 
Association  which  he  had  founded  in  1825,  as  to  those  of  the 
three  New  Colleges.  And  not  only  to  them,  for  Principal 
Shairp  induced  him  to  delight  the  students  of  St.  Andrews  with 
a  lecture  on  the  Literature  and  History  of  the  People  of  India, 


608  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1871. 

intended  to  stir  them  up  to  claim  their  share  of  appointments 
in  the  Services  which  Scotsmen  once  almost  monopolised. 

This  growing  appreciation  led  to  a  movement  for  securing 
a  portrait  of  the  philanthropist  for  his  native  country,  since 
he  persisted  in  his  resolution  to  return  to  much-loved  Bom- 
bay. On  the  9th  June  1871  he  thus  wrote  to  Mr.  David 
Maclagan,  who  had  organised  the  matter  —  "The  proposal 
has  taken  me  by  surprise,  as  I  feel  that  I  have  no  claim  to 
be  an  aspirant  to  the  honours  which  you  and  other  friends 
desiderate  on  my  behalf.  In  giving  my  grateful  consent  to 
that  proposal,  I  feel  very  deeply  that  it  is  the  judgment  of 
God  and  not  that  of  man  with  which  I  have  mainly  to  do, 
and  that  I  have  many  grounds  for  personal  humiliation  in 
the  divine  presence  in  connection  with  my  ministrations  in 
all  the  places  in  which  they  have  been  conducted."  The 
portrait,  painted  by  Mr.  Norman  Macbeth,  has  since  adorned 
the  common  hall  of  the  New  College,  Edinburgh. 

The  Select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  which 
began  to  take  evidence  on  the  financial  system  of  India  in 
1871,  examined  Dr.  Wilson  on  the  subject  of  the  opium 
cultivation  of  Central  and  Western  India  and  the  excise 
laws.  Almost  from  the  year  of  his  first  landing  at  Bombay 
•he  had,  on  the  ground  of  temperance,  memorialised  Govern- 
ment on  the  increase  of  drunkenness  under  our  rule.  He 
admitted,  from  the  Vedas  and  from  the  state  of  Poona  under 
the  Marathas,  that  intoxication  had  been  known  in  India, 
both  from  drugs  and  distillation.  From  his  tours,  in  Eajpoot- 
ana  especially,  he  gave  much  information  as  to  the  extent  to 
which  the  cultivation  of  the  poppy  is  absorbing  the  best 
lands,  demoralising  the  people  and  killing  off  their  chiefs. 
He  urged  an  increase  of  the  spirit  duties,  the  protection  of 
native  villages  from  the  invasion  of  the  drink-sellers  caused 
by  our  excise  system,  and — at  least — the  conversion  of  the 
Bengal  opium  monopoly  into  the  Bombay  system,  for  which 


1871.]  LAST  FAREWELL  TO  SCOTLAND.  609 

the  Government  and  the  nation,  as  such,  are  not  responsible. 
He  testified  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  natives  with  British  rule 
as  contrasted  with  that  of  their  own  princes.  That  Select 
Committee  was  not  allowed  to  give  in  a  final  report  on  the 
voluminous  evidence  which  it  took.  The  excise  laws  and 
opium  monopoly  remain  unchanged  to  this  day,  a  blot  on  our 
generally  benevolent  administration  of  India,  excused  but  not 
justified  by  financial  difficulties. 

The  toil-worn  man  of  sixty-five,  the  missionary  of  forty- 
three  years'  service,  might  well  have  been  pardoned  if  he 
had  chosen  to  rest  where  he  was.  But  whether  in  Scotland 
or  in  India  rest  could  not  be  for  that  burning  spirit,  that 
busy  mind,  that  active  body.  "  I  go  bound  in  the  Spirit  to 
India  to  declare  the  Gospel  message,"  he  wrote  to  Miss 
Margaret  Dennistoun,  when  about  to  step  on  board  the 
'  Ceylon '  at  Brindisi.  "  Nothing  but  this  object  sustains  my 
heart.  I  am  sure  you  will  all  earnestly  pray  for  me.  My 
solace  is  in  the  Lord." 

"4th  October  1871. — Took  leave  of  my  beloved  friends  at 
Lauder,  who  were  all  deeply  affected,  not  expecting  again 
to  see  me  in  the  flesh.  Though  I  felt  much  on  parting  with 
them  I  was  wonderfully  supported  by  the  Lord  Jesus.  I 
read  the  129th  and  121st  Psalms  before  engaging  in  prayer 
in  my  own  house  with  the  surviving  members  of  our  family. 
They  gave  me  the  convoy  in  the  carriage  till  we  got  out  of 
sight  of  the  valley  of  the  Leader.  Drove  to  Greenlaw,  where 
I  was  received  with  much  kindness  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fair- 
bairn,  and  Eev.  Messrs.  Cunningham,  Fraser,  and  Spence, 
whom  they  had  invited  to  meet  me.  Addressed  a  meeting 
in  the  Free  Church. 

"  5^. — To  Langton,  where  I  addressed  Mr.  Logan's  con- 
gregation in  the  evening.  In  the  afternoon  I  visited  Langton 
House,  to  renew  my  acquaintance  with  the  excellent  Lady 
Hannah  Tharpe,  who  gave  me  a  very  kind  reception.  I  had  a 

2R 


610  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1871. 

long  talk,  too,  on  the  grounds,  with  Lady  Elizabeth  Pringle 
who  has  done  much  for  their  improvement  as  well  as  for 
that  of  the  mansion.  She  is  a  most  vigorous  and  intelligent 
old  lady. 

"  6th. — Driven  by  Mr.  Logan  to  Dunse,  to  the  Eev.  Mr. 
Miller.  After  calling  on  Dr.  Eitchie  of  the  United  Presby- 
terian Church  I  left  for  Selkirk  by  rail.  I  was  recognised 
at  Galashiels  by  Mr.  Ovans,  son  of  an  old  friend,  who  took 
me  to  his  house.  I  posted  to  Harewood  Glen,  where  James 
Dennistoun  and  his  family  were  delighted  to  see  me. 

"  8tk. — Driven  to  Selkirk  and  preached  in  the  Free  Church." 
Dr.  Guthrie's  was  the  last  "  kent "  face  he  saw  in  his 
native  land.  Accompanied  by  his  niece  he  followed  his  old 
route  by  the  Ehine  to  Munich,  seeing  Professor  Christlieb  at 
Bonn,  and  bitterly  lamenting  the  loss  of  "  my  grand  walking- 
cane,  the  gift  of  Colonel  Davidson."  At  the  Bavarian  capital 
he  writes  :  "  I  renewed  my  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Haug,  Pro- 
fessor of  Sanscrit  in  the  University,  and  he  treated  the  two 
of  us  to  a  right  good  German  supper  in  the  evening,  at  which 
we  met  not  only  his  wife  and  son,  but  Mr.  West  (now  Ph.D.) 
and  Mrs.  West,  old  Bombay  friends,  much  with  dearest  Isabella 
and  myself.  Dr.  Haug  offered  to  introduce  me  to  Dr.  Doll- 
inger,  the  living  lion  of  the  place,  but  I  could  not  spare  the 
needful  time."  And  so,  after  a  day  at  Trent,  and  in  the 
cathedral  and  church  of  Sta.  Maria  Maggiore  "  in  which  the 
famous  Council  intended  to  defeat  the  Eeformation  was  held," 
the  last  week  of  November  1871  saw  him  in  the  hospitable 
house  of  Dr.  Yule,  the  consular  chaplain  at  Alexandria,  and 
soon  after  on  an  excursion  from  Suez  to  the  Wells  of  Moses. 
At  Aden  he  and  General  Irving,  E.E.  repeated  the  usual 
five  miles'  ride  to  the  town  and  tanks.  On  the  9th  December 
he  was  welcomed  back  to  Bombay  by  Dhunjeebhoy  and  the 
son  of  the  Nawab  of  Nasik,  who  boarded  the  steamer  as  it 
entered  the  harbour. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

1872-1875. 
BEST. 

Assassination  of  Chief  Justice  Norman  and  Lord  Mayo — Dr.  "Wilson  on 
Muhammadan  feeling — Translates  Treasonable  Proclamation — Welcomes  from 
Old  Students — At  the  Allahabad  Missionary  Conference — Additions  to  the 
Native  Church — Shapoorjee's  Persecution — Vithabai's  Habeas  Corpus  Case — 
Missionary  Statistics — Holkar's  Gift — Consulted  by  Viceroy  on  Baroda  Case — 
Vernacular  Press  and  State  Education — Triumphs  of  opposition  to  the  Slave- 
Trade  and  the  Crimes  of  the  Indian  Cults — On  Kirk  Union  and  Disestablish- 
ment—Social Duties— Mr.  Grant  Duff—  Lord  Northbrook— H.  R.  H.  the 
Prince  of  "Wales — Illness — Death — Funeral — Memorials — Tributes  by  Vice- 
Chancellor  Gibbs,  Captain  R.  Mackenzie,  I.N.,  and  the  Wife  of  Major-General 
Ballard,  C.B. 


One  only,  of  God's  messengers  to  man, 
Finish'd  the  work  of  grace  which  He  began  ; 
E'en  Moses  wearied  upon  Nebo's  height, 

Though  loth  to  leave  the  fight 
With  the  doom'd  foe,  and  yield  the  sun-bright  land 

To  Joshua's  armed  band. 

'  And  David  wrought  in  turn  a  strenuous  part, 
Zeal  for  God's  house  consuming  him  in  heart  ; 
And  yet  he  might  not  build,  but  only  bring 

Gifts  for  the  heavenly  King  ; 
And  these  another  reared,  his  peaceful  son, 

Till  the  full  work  was  done. 

List,  Christian  warrior  !  thou  whose  soul  is  fain 
To  rid  thy  Mother  of  her  present  chain  ; — 
Christ  will  avenge  His  Bride  ;  yea,  even  now 

Begins  the  work,  and  thou 
Shalt  spend  in  it  thy  strength,  but,  ere  He  save, 

Thy  lot  shall  be  the  grave." 

JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN  :  in  1833. 


"  I,  Galahad,  saw  the  Grail 

.    .    .    Blood-red.     And  in  the  strength  of  this  I  rode 
Shattering  all  evil  customs  everywhere, 
And  past  thro'  Pagan  realms,  and  made  them  mine, 
And  clashed  with  Pagan  hordes,  and  bore  them  down, 
And  broke  thro'  all,  and  in  the  strength  of  this 
Come  victor.     But  my  time  is  hard  at  hand, 
And  hence  I  go  ;  and  one  will  crown  me  king 
Far  in  the  spiritual  city  ;  and  come  thou,  too, 
For  thou  shalt  see  the  vision  when  I  go." 

TENNYSON  :  The  Holy  Grail. 


1872.]       DR.  WILSON  ON  MUHAMMAD ANS  AND  LORD  MAYO.       613 


CHAPTEE  XX. 

A  THRILL  of  feeling  like  that  called  forth  by  the  Cawnpore 
massacre  followed  the  assassination  of  the  Viceroy,  Lord 
Mayo,  by  a  fanatical  Afghan  convict  in  the  penal  settlement 
of  the  Andaman  Islands,  on  the  8th  February  1872.  Not 
five  months  before  a  Wahabee  traitor  had  cut  down  the 
blameless  Chief  Justice,  Mr.  Norman,  as  he  entered  the  High 
Court  in  Calcutta.  It  was  difficult,  at  the  time,  to  believe 
that  both  of  these  events,  unprecedented  in  our  history,  were 
not  the  expression  of  more  than  the  individual  blood- 
thirstiness  of  the  assassins.  But  the  voice  of  Dr.  Wilson, 
who  knew  well  the  most  excitable  Muhammadan  com- 
munities in  India,  next  at  least  to  the  Wahabees  and 
Afghans  on  the  frontier,  was  raised  again,  as  in  1857,  in 
deprecation  of  sweeping  charges  against  millions  of  our 
fellow-subjects.  In  a  Town-Hall  meeting,  and  again  at  the 
annual  conference  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society's 
branch  in  Bombay,  he  used  such  language  as  this  of  Lord 
Mayo's  assassin  :  "  The  murderer  must  be  prayed  for  in  the 
spirit  of  the  prayer  offered  up  by  Christ,  that  we  should 
ask  forgiveness  for  those  who  trespass  against  us.  I  am 
thoroughly  convinced  of  the  loyalty  of  the  main  body  of 
Muhammadans.  I  believe  that  many  of  them  are  most 
anxious  for  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  and  even  knowledge 
concerning  God."  His  eulogy  of  "  the  benevolent  and 
beneficent  Governor-General"  was  based  on  the  experience 
he  had  had  of  his  character  and  conversation  when  his 
guest  at  Simla.  Since  that  other  Irish  administrator,  the 


614  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1873. 

Marquis  Wellesley,  no  ruler  had  exercised  on  Native  and 
European  alike  such  a  personal  fascination  as  the  upright 
Peer  whose  only  fault  was  that  he  had  sometimes  too  little 
suspicion  of  abler  intellects  directed  by  lower  motives  than 
his  own.  The  missionary's  correspondence  with  Lord  Mayo 
was  brief,  but  it  is  sufficient  to  justify  the  assertion  that 
the  Viceroy  felt  a  keen  interest  in  all  Christian  and  philan- 
thropic agencies,  "  and  promised  to  give  all  assistance  in  his 
power  to  their  efforts  amongst  the  heathen  tribes  of  the  land." 
Soon  after,  Dr.  Wilson  was  consulted  by  the  authorities  on 
the  translation  and  significance  of  a  treasonable  proclamation 
found  in  the  pulpit  of  the  Jumma  Musjeed,  the  great  mosque 
of  Delhi,  and  in  another  place. 

Lord  Northbrook,  the  successor  of  Lord  Mayo,  had  hardly 
taken  his  seat  when  he  turned  to  Dr.  Wilson  for  information 
and  counsel  as  to  the  working  of  the  University  system,  in 
itself  and  in  its  influence  on  the  lower  and  vernacular 
education.  Dr.  Murdoch  had  long  called  the  attention 
of  the  various  Governments  to  the  idolatrous  and  obscene 
passages  in  Government  school-books,  from  which,  neverthe- 
less, Christian  allusion^  were  carefully  excluded.  The  new 
Governor-General  instructed  each  provincial  Government  to 
report  on  the  subject,  and  with  his  own  hand  thus  wrote  to 
Dr.  Wilson  on  the  3d  May  18*73  :  "  The  revision  of  the  school- 
books  is  intended  to  extend  to  the  Vernacular  as  well  as  the 
English  books,  and  to  give  the  opportunity  of  eliminating 
any  indecencies  or  passages  which  teach  the  Hindoo  or 
Muhammadan  religions  ....  I  did  not  think  it  desirable  to 
take  any  public  notice  of  this  part  of  the  question,  but  I  wish 
to  set  the  matter  straight  without  making  a  fuss.  It  is  very 
gratifying  to  me  that  you  should  agree  with  what  I  said  at 
the  Convocation  of  the  Calcutta  University."  Lord  North- 
brook  then  invited  Dr.  Wilson's  opinion  on  such  vexed 
questions  as  the  compulsory  requirement  of  an  ancient 


1873.]    GENERAL  MISSIONARY  CONFERENCE  AT  ALLAHABAD.     615 

language  (Sanscrit,  in  Bengal)  for  University  pass  degrees, 
and  the  establishment  of  University  Professorships.  On  the 
latter  the  Scottish  scholar's  opinion  was  most  strongly  that 
of  Mr.  S.  Laing  when  Finance  Minister,  Mr.  C.  U.  Aitchison, 
Bishop  Cotton,  Archdeacon  Pratt,  Dr.  Duff,  Principal  Miller, 
and  Lord  Northbrook  himself  at  last,  that  the  Universities 
should  not  be  prevented  from  becoming  teaching  as  well  as 
examining  bodies,  especially  in  such  subjects  common  to  all, 
and  not  involving  religious  difficulties,  as  the  mathematical 
and  physical  sciences.  Calcutta  and  Bombay  now  possess 
at  least  one  University  Chair. 

On  the  two  occasions  on  which,  in  1872  and  1873,  Dr. 
Wilson  travelled  by  railway  to  Nagpore,  to  inspect  the  mis- 
sion and  do  presbyterial  duty,  and  to  Allahabad  to  attend 
the  General  Missionary  Conference,  he  made  something  like 
a  triumphal  progress.  These  great  cities  were  the  outposts  to 
which  his  direct  influence  had  extended  during  the  previous 
forty  years.  At  every  station  where  his  advent  was  known, 
natives,  young  and  old,  converts  and  non-Christians,  crowded 
to  the  train  to  see  their  teacher  once  more,  while  some  accom- 
panied him  for  forty  miles  to  prolong  the  dearly  loved  inter- 
course. His  letters  show  how  deeply  this  affection  moved 
the  old  man.  At  Allahabad  he  was  honoured,  above  all,  by 
the  136  missionaries  of  19  societies,  Native  and  European, 
from  all  parts  of  India,  who  met  to  discuss  the  methods  and 
results  of  the  missions  in  India  during  the  previous  decade. 
In  the  whole  history  of  foreign  missions  no  such  Synod  has 
ever  been  held,  whether  we  look  at  the  number  and  varied 
experience  of  the  members,  at  the  evangelical  unity  of  their 
faith  and  love,  or  at  the  weight  and  critical  value  of  their 
discussions.1  Dr.  Wilson  was  one  of  the  daily  presidents, 
and  he  preached  on  "  The  Glory  of  Christ"  on  the  evening  of 

1  Report  of  the  General  Missionary  Conference  held  at  Allahabad,  1872-73. 
London  :  Seeley,  Jackson,  and  Halliday,  1873. 


616  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1873. 

the  united  communion  service.  The  subject  assigned  to  him 
for  a  paper  was  "  On  Preaching  to  the  Hindoos,"  which  he 
treated  not  as  purely  evangelistic,  not  as  only  educational, 
but  as  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel  in  many  forms.  His 
plea  for  doing  justice  to  the  languages  of  the  peoples  of 
India  as  the  grand,  though  not  exclusive,  media  of  Christian 
instruction — legendo,  scribendo,  et  loquendo — was  not  less  em- 
phatic than  when  he  first  applied  it  to  himself  in  1829.  But 
he  advocated  English  as  "  an  alternative  vernacular  language, 
specially  adapted  to  the  higher  regions  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing," especially  in  the  great  cities.  "  It  is  rapidly  becoming 
under  the  British  Government  what  the  Greek  became  under 
the  Seleucidse  and  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Latin  became  under 
the  Eoman  Consuls.  I  leave  all  absolute  anti- Anglicists  to 
answer  for  themselves  the  question,  Why  did  the  wisdom  of 
God  choose  the  Greek  language  for  the  New  Testament  ? " 
Nowhere  will  the  young  Englishman,  and  especially  the 
preacher  and  teacher,  who  goes  out  to  India,  find  such  ripe 
wisdom  and  practical  counsels  as  in  that  paper,  and  in  the 
subsequent  opinions  on  intercourse  with  the  Muhammadans, 
the  aboriginal  tribes,  and  the  advanced  Brahmists.  The  hints 
are  worthy  to  be  placed  side  by  side  with,  so  as  to  supple- 
ment, the  famous  but  now  too  little  known,  "  Notes  of  Instruc- 
tions" to  young  officials,  in  Malcolm's  Memoir  of  Central  India. 
To  the  last,  whether  in  Bombay  or  elsewhere,  Dr.  Wilson 
looked,  worked,  prayed  for  true  converts,  and  not  in  vain.  The 
case  of  Dhunjeebhoy  Nowrojee  more  than  thirty  years  before, 
and  oft-repeated  since,  was  renewed  in  1872.  Shapoorjee 
Dhunjeebhoy  Babha,  a  youth  of  good  family,  entered  the  Surat 
mission  school  to  learn  English.  On  the"  second  day  of  his 
attendance  Dr.  Wilson  happened  to  visit  the  school  and  to 
distribute  copies  of  his  elementary  catechism.  The  simple 
book  issued  in  Shapoorjee's  baptism  two  years  after,  in  spite 
of  the  controversial  treatises  placed  in  his  hands  on  the  other 


1874.]  REAPING  THE  FIRST  FRUIT.  617 

side,  and  the  frantic  declarations  of  his  father  that  he  would 
destroy  himself.  The  usual  persecution  followed — kidnap- 
ping and  imprisonment.  But  the  youth  remained  firm.  He 
nursed  Dr.  Wilson  in  the  last  hours,  and  has  visited  Scotland 
for  the  completion  of  his  theological  studies.  Again,  in  1874, 
Yithabai,  a  married  lady  of  high  caste,  sought  baptism,  and  was 
driven  from  her  home  by  the  violence  of  her  husband,  whose 
treatment  of  the  children  was  such  that  the  mother  had  them 
brought  into  court  on  a  writ  of  "  habeas  corpus."  The  eldest 
girl,  twelve  years  of  age,  vehemently  protested  her  desire  to 
live  as  a  Christian  with  her  mother,  but  the  father's  rights  were 
declared  absolute,  in  spite  of  his  acknowledged  cruelty.  The 
evidence  showed  that  he  had  himself  placed  his  daughter  in  the 
Free  Church  female  school,  and  had  arranged  that  she  should 
receive  lunch  in  violation  of  caste  rules ;  that  when  she  left 
the  school,  a  Christian  book  she  took  with  her  led  her  mother 
to  Christ ;  that  he  then  asked  the  wife  of  the  Eev.  Gunputrao 
Navalkar  to  teach  Christianity  in  his  own  house  ;  and  that  he 
himself  had  even  proposed  to  go  over  to  Chistianity  with  his 
whole  family.  Who  that  knows  the  little  faith  and  much 
fearing  of  his  own  heart  will  do  more  than  pity  the  timidity 
that  prevailed  ?  In  the  same  year  Dr.  Wilson  wrote  to  Miss 
Camilla  Dennistoun :  "  Mission  objects  are  pressing  upon  me 
the  more  that  the  enterprise  expands.  Last  year  I  admitted 
into  the  Christian  Church  eighteen  individuals  of  hopeful 
character,  education,  and  intelligence.  This  year  the  harvest 
promises  to  be  equally  extensive."  Statistics  are  no  adequate 
test  of  such  work  as  Dr.  Wilson's.  But  the  latest  figures  for 
1877  show  that  in  Bombay  and  the  stations  of  the  Free 
Church  founded  by  him,  1071  converts  have  been  admitted, 
on  the  intelligent  profession  of  their  faith,  since  the  beginning 
of  his  mission;  while  there  were  2877  pupils  and  students 
in  56  schools.  That  is  but  the  first-fruit  of  the  harvest 
which  he  sowed.  We  find  it  in  other  forms  so  opposite,  as 


618  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1875. 

the  gift  at  this  time,  through  Sir  Madhava  Bao,  of  Es.  500 
from  the  Maharaja  Holkar,  which  was  devoted  to  enriching 
the  libraries  of  the  college  and  schools  in  vernacular  and 
Sanscrit  works ;  and  this  communication  from  one  who  had 
been  long  a  chaplain  in  India :  "  I  can  never  forget  that  it 
was  at  a  social  meeting  at  your  house  in  Ambrolie,  and  while 
you  were  engaged  in  prayer,  that  a  remarkable  change,  or 
rather  the  first  step  of  a  remarkable  change,  passed  over 
my  wife.  I  may  say  that  the  life  of  faith  is  a  different  thing 
to  me  now  from  what  it  was  when  you  and  I  were  first 
acquainted." 

The  last  of  the  political  services  which  Dr.  Wilson  was  to 
be  able  to  render  to  the  Government  was  called  for  by  Lord 
Northbrook.  As  an  interpreter  between  the  Oriental  and  the 
European  mind,  as  a  mediator  between  the  races,  he  was 
asked  in  1875  for  his  impressions  as  to  the  effect  of  the  recent 
Baroda  trial  on  the  minds  of  the  natives.  "  The  opinion 
of  one  occupying  your  position,  with  large  experience  of  the 
country  and  peculiar  opportunities  of  mixing  with  all  classes, 
would  be  very  valuable,"  he  was  told,  as  different  at  once 
from  official  reports  and  the  utterances  of  the  Press.  His 
elaborate  reply  (see  Appendix)  called  forth  a  warm  letter  of 
gratitude,  and  a  further  request  for  his  opinion  on  these  ques- 
tions, one  of  which  has  since  been  hastily  dealt  with  : — "  Is  it 
desirable  to  impose  any  check  upon  the  native  Press,  or  to 
endeavour  to  counteract  the  effect  of  the  disloyal  native  papers 
by  supporting  papers  which  will  put  forward  correct  views  ? " 
"  Has  the  time  arrived  for  making  those  who  receive  a  high 
English  education  pay  the  whole  cost  of  it,  limiting  the  aid 
of  the  State  to  those  youths  who,  by  distinguishing  them- 
selves in  the  lower  schools,  show  that  they  deserve  assistance 
in  completing  their  education,  thereby  bringing  fully  into 
operation  the  principles  expounded  in  the  Educational 
Despatch  of  1854  ? "  The  leisure  for  replying  to  these 


1875.]      INIQUITIES  OF  INDIA  REMOVED  BY  GOVERNMENT.        619 

questions  never  came,  but  it  is  not  difficult  to  say  what 
Dr.  Wilson's  answer  would  have  been  to  both.  Certainly  he 
would  have  urged  the  Governor-General,  by  arguments  no 
less  powerful  than  those  which  gave  the  Despatch  of  1854 
its  force,  to  remove  every  obstruction  to  the  development  of 
a  policy  which  would  give  all  religions,  educationally,  a  fair 
field,  and  would  permit  positive  moral  and  spiritual  principle 
to  affect  the  education  of  the  young,  while  ceasing  to  build 
up  and  to  hedge  round  pure  secularism,  and  all  which  that 
involves,  by  a  State  monopoly.  It  is  deeply  to  be  regretted 
that,  in  spite  of  his  premature  abolition  of  direct  taxation, 
so  that  the  burdens  of  India  are  thrown  mainly  on  the 
poor,  Lord  Nbrthbrook  did  not  continue  for  at  least  the  usual 
five  years'  term  of  office,  to  maintain  the  safe  traditional 
foreign  and  feudatory  policy  of  his  great  predecessors,  and 
to  develop  his  own  wise  educational  views. 

In  the  mission  of  Sir  Bartle  Erere  to  Africa  and  the 
East,  to  arrange  with  the  Khedive,  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar, 
and  the  petty  potentates  of  the  littoral  from  the  Persian  Gulf 
west  and  south  to  the  still  slave-trading  territory  of  the 
Portuguese  Government  of  Mozambique,  Dr.  Wilson  saw 
the  philanthropic  efforts  of  his  life  approaching  that  happy 
issue  which  our  vigorous  consul  at  Zanzibar,  Dr.  Kirk,  soon 
after  reached  by  treaty.  In  India  itself,  as  he  reviewed  the 
gradual  amelioration  of  Asiatic  customs  under  the  East  India 
Company,  and  the  growth  of  toleration  under  the  Crown,  he 
thus  tersely  catalogued  the  bloodless  triumphs  that  had  been 
won  on  a  field  where,  it  may  be  said,  he  himself  completed 
what  Carey  had  begun  eighty  years  before  : — 

HORRORS  AND  INIQUITIES  OF  INDIA  REMOVED  BY  GOVERNMENT. 

I.  MURDER  OF  PARENTS. 
(a)  By  Suttee. 

(6)  By  exposure  on  the  banks  of  rivers. 
(c)  By  burial  alive.     Case  in  Jodhpore  territory,  1860. 


620  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1875. 

II.  MURDER  OF  CHILDREN. 

(a)  By  dedication  to  the  Ganges,  to  be  devoured  by  crocodiles. 
(6)  By  Rajpoot  infanticide,  West  of  India,  Punjab,  East  of  India. 

III.  HUMAN  SACRIFICES. 
(a)  Temple  sacrifices. 

(6)  By  wild  tribes  — Meriahs  of  the  Khonds. 

IV.  SUICIDE. 

(a)  Crushing  by  idol  cars. 

(6)  Devotees  drowning  themselves  in  rivers. 

(c)  Devotees  casting  themselves  from  precipices. 

(d)  Leaping  into  wells — widows. 

(e)  By  Traga. 

V.  VOLUNTARY  TORMENT. 
(a)  By  hook-swinging. 
(6)  By  thigh-piercing. 

(c)  By  tongue-extraction. 

(d)  By  falling  on  knives. 

(e)  By  austerities. 

VI.  INVOLUNTARY  TORMENT. 
(a)  Barbarous  executions. 
(6)  Mutilation  of  criminals. 

(c)  Extraction  of  evidence  by  torment. 

(d)  Bloody  and  injurious  ordeals. 

(e)  Cutting  off  the  noses  of  women. 

VII.  SLAVERY. 

(a)  Hereditary  predial  slavery. 
(6)  Domestic  slavery, 
(c)  Importation  of  slaves  from  Africa. 
.     VIII.  EXTORTIONS. 
(a)  By  Dharana. 
(6)  By  Traga. 

IX.  RELIGIOUS  INTOLERANCE. 

(a)  Prevention  of  Propagation  of  Christianity. 
(6)  Calling  upon  the  Christian  soldiers  to  fire  salutes  at  heathen 
festivals,  etc. 

(c)  Saluting  gods  on  official  papers. 

(d)  Managing  affairs  of  idol  temples. 

X.  SUPPORT  OF  CASTE  BY  LAW. 

(a)  Exclusion  of  low  castes  from  offices. 

(6)  Exemption  of  high  castes  from  appearing  to  give  evidence. 

(c)  Disparagement  of  low  caste. 


1875.]  A  RECONSTRUCTED  KIRK  OF  SCOTLAND.  621 

But  it  was  ever  to  the  spiritual,  the  divine,  that  Dr. 
Wilson  looked  as  the  motive  power  of  all  effective  philan- 
thropy. Hence,  as  his  end  drew  near,  he  longed  more  and 
more  for  the  restoration  of  that  unity  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland 
which,  when  the  later  Stewarts  had  failed  to  wipe  it  out  in 
blood,  the  short-sighted  advisers  of  Queen  Anne  first  secretly 
shattered.  His  experience  during  the  year  of  his  Moderator- 
ship  showed  him  that,  without  a  united  Kirk  reconstructed  on 
the  historical  lines  of  spiritual  but  lay  independence,  as  stated 
by  Francis  Jeffrey  and  Cockburn,  his  country  would  never  do 
its  duty  in  the  Christianization  of  India.  These  were  his  last 
letters  on  that  subject,  written  at  a  time  when  he  was  wel- 
coming back  to  India  the  Rev.  Narayan  Sheshadri  "  after  his 
most  successful  campaign  in  Britain  and  America,"  in  which 
the  Christian  Brahman  had  pleaded  for  the  depressed  tribes 
and  ignorant  peasantry  for  whom  he  has  given  his  life — 

"  4th  September  1874. — Nulla  vestigia  retrorsum  must  be  the  motto 
of  tlie  Free  Presbyterian  Churches.  If  others  can  claim,  and  receive 
and  maintain  their  full  liberty  in  Christ,  and  prove  faithful  to  evan- 
gelical truth,  let  them  be  received  into  the  advanced  fraternity  ;  but 
let  there  be  no  obscurations,  or  concessions,  or  retrogressions,  which, 
would  endanger  or  weaken  our  position  or  injure  our  character.  The 
duty  of  the  State  now,  in  the  present  advanced  state  of  Christian 
society  and  the  many  divisions  which  exist,  is  to  remove  all  imposts 
for  the  support  of  religion,  and  to  devote  all  church  property  held  by 
the  State  to  such  objects  as,  in  the  spirit  of  its  original  destination,  are 
not  inconsistent  with  its  original  consecration,  viewed  in  a  general 
and  liberal  sense." 

"  5th  October  1874. — I  am  pleased  to  a  certain  extent  with  the  Act 
of  Parliament  abolishing  Patronage,  and  more  particularly  because  it 
was  sought  for  by  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland  ;  but  it  does  not 
recognise  the  essential  freedom  and  autonomy  of  the  Church,  and  is 
entirely  destitute  of  Presbyterian  Catholicity.  We  are  the  historical 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  let  the  Established  Churchmen  be  abreast  of 
us  before  we  unite  with  them.  The  hasty  comprehensions  of  the 
[Revolution  bear  a  solemn  lesson  to  us  which  we  should  not  forget.  I 
am  convinced  that  they  are  the  best  friends  of  the  Established  Churches 
of  Scotland  and  England  who,  in  a  Christian  spirit,  seek  their  disestab- 


622  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1875. 

lishment.  Saying  or  doing  nothing  in  this  direction  we  are  respon- 
sible for  much  error  and  much  sin.  I  express  this  opinion  with  much 
personal  regard  for  thousands  of  their  members  and  ministers,  and  with 
still  greater  regard  for  those  of  our  own  Church  who  may  not  see  eye 
to  eye  with  us  in  this  matter.  Much  discretion  will  be  needed  in  the 
advocacy  of  the  disestablishment  cause." 

Every  year,  to  the  last,  seemed  to  bring  with  it  an  increase 
of  Dr.  Wilson's  social  duties  and  influence,  while  there  was 
no  abatement  in  his  services  to  the  public  by  frequent  lec- 
tures on  such  subjects  as  "  Views  of  Sin  in  the  Hindoo  Books 
and  in  the  Bible ; "  "  Hindoo  Philosophy,"  etc.  Among  the 
guests  and  visitors  whom  he  again  and  again  guided  amid 
the  rock-cut  temples  around  Bombay,  while  he  opened  to 
them  its  native,  its  benevolent  and  scientific  institutions,  and 
delighted  them  with  his  conversation,  were,  in  these  last 
years — Lord  Northbrook,  Lady  Hobart,  Sir  Arthur  Gordon, 
Sir  Harry  Parkes,  Count  Cserakotsky,  Dr.  Hermann  Jacobi, 
Dr.  Begg,  General  Litchfield,  Mr.  Grant  Duff;  Mr,  Maughan 
and  Mr.  Octavius  Stone,  the  travellers ;  Mr.  Seibert,  and  other 
United  States'  astronomers ;  Dr.  Andreas,  sent  by  the  Austrian 
Government  to  study  the  Parsee  religion;  Miss  Tucker 
(A.L.O.E.) ;  M.  Minayeff,  a  Eussian  traveller;  Professor 
Monier  Williams ;  the  Armenian  bishop ;  the  Maharaja 
Holkar,  Sir  Madhava  Rao,  and  the  Chief  of  Jamkhundee; 
Canon  Duckworth,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  A.  N.  Somerville. 
It  was  at  the  farewell  meeting  held  by  that  evangelist  on 
April  7th,  1875,  that  Dr.  Wilson  appeared  among  the  non- 
Christian  natives  of  Bombay  for  the  last  time — a  fitting  occa- 
sion. Dr.  Templeton  closed  the  long  succession  of  mission- 
aries and  friends  who  had  been  his  guests.  The  last  time  he 
gathered  his  children  in  the  faith  around  him  was  on  the 
18th  August,  when  he  opened  the  "Day-school  for  Indian 
and  other  Eastern  Females,"  which  he  had  erected  in  affec- 
tionate remembrance  of  Isabella  Wilson,  "  from  a  bequest  by 
herself  for  any  one  evangelistic  object  of  his  choice." 


1875.]          HIS  KOYAL  HIGHNESS  THE  PRINCE  OF  WALES.  623 

Mr.  Grant  Duff  has  told  the  world  his  delight  in  the 
companionship  of  the  missionary : — "  We  drove  round  a  large 
part  of  the  town  with  Dr.  Wilson — a  great  pleasure,  to  be  put 
in  the  same  class  as  going  over  Canterbury  Cathedral  with 
the  author  of  the  Memorials,  the  Greyfriars'  Churchyard  with 
Eobert  Chambers,  or  Holyrood  with  poor  Joseph  Eobertson. 

.  .  I  leave  Bombay  with  a  much  stronger  impression 
than  I  had  of  its  great  Asiatic  as  distinguished  from  its  merely 
Indian  importance.  It  is  and  will  be  more  and  more,  to  all  this 
part  of  the  world,  what  Ephesus  or  Alexandria  was  to  the 
eastern  basin  of  the  Mediterranean  in  the  days  of  the  Eoman 
Empire.  I  wish  I  could  give  it  a  fortnight,  and  be  allowed  to 
pick  Dr.  Wilson's  brains  all  the  time."  By  the  time  that  the 
Prince  of  Wales  landed,  and  there  had  been  put  into  his  hands 
that  exposition  of  the  "  Religious  Excavations  of  Western 
India,"  over  which  Dr.  Wilson  was  to  have  been  his  guide, 
the  great  missionary  was  too  ill  to  receive  His  Royal  Highness, 
who  graciously  deputed  so  old  a  friend  as  Sir  Bartle  Frere  to 
visit  the  dying  apostle,  and  sent  him  the  royal  portrait.  The 
Viceroy,  Lord  Northbrook,  sought  an  interview  with  him,  as 
Lord  Hastings  and  Lady  W.  Bentinck  had  done  with  Carey 
when  he  was  sick. 

Frequent  attacks  of  fever,  after  his  return  to  Bombay  at 
the  end  of  1871,  had  ended  in  September  1875  in  chronic 
breathlessness  from  weakness  of  the  heart.  But  he  could  not 
rest  so  long  as  any  duty  had  to  be  done  in  the  Institution,  in 
the  financial  affairs  of  the  mission,  and  in  the  University, 
although  he  had  Mr.  Stothert  and  zealous  young  colleagues 
to  relieve  him.  On  attempting  to  reach  Mahableshwar,  after  a 
previous  visit  to  Poona,  he  was  forced  by  an  alarming  attack 
to  return  from  Panchgunny,  twelve  miles  short  of  the  loved 
sanitarium.  Miss  Taylor,  Dr.  Macdonald  the  medical  mis- 
sionary, and  Professor  Peterson  nursed  him  with  devotion. 
When  again  in  Bombay  under  the  tender  skill  of  Dr.  Joynt, 


624  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1875. 

he  had  ever  in  his  hand,  as  he  sat  in  the  chair  to  which  the 
disease  confined  him,  a  volume  of  hymns  marked  at  Kelly's 
"  Comfort  in  Prospect  of  Death."  In  the  last  letter  written 
with  his  own  hand  he  said  :  "  In  the  goodness  of  my  Heavenly 
Father  I  think  I  am  a  little  better,  but  if  you  saw  my 
difficulty  of  breathing  you  would  pity  me.  Let  that  pity  pass 
into  petitions  addressed  to  the  Throne  of  all  grace."  Eeady  to 
die  he  yet  desired  life  that  he  might  finish,  as  he  thought,  his 
Master's  work.  To  Mr.  Bowen,  the  American  missionary,  he 
said  the  day  before  he  died :  "  I  have  perfect  peace,  and  am 
content  that  the  Lord  should  do  what  seems  good  to  Him." 
And  then  he  talked  of  the  advance  of  Christ's  kingdom  in 
India,  expressing  an  eager  solicitude  that  during  the  Prince's 
tour  among  its  peoples  and  nobles  nothing  might  be  done  that 
should  even  seem  to  countenance  false  religions,  or  to  depart 
from  the  Government's  attitude  of  simple  toleration.  He 
had  lived  for  the  freedom  of  Truth ;  rejoicing  in  Him  Who 
alone  has  guaranteed  that  freedom  he  died. 

At  his  feet  gathered  more,  and  more  to  him,  than  prince 
or  viceroy,  governor  or  scholar.  The  Hindoos  were  there ; 
Tirmal  Rao  and  his  two  sons  came  from  far  Dharwar  to  seek 
his  blessing.  They  knelt  before  him,  their  turbans  on  the 
ground,  as  they  laid  the  Christian  patriarch's  hands  on  their 
heads ;  and  when  he  died  they — Hindoos — begged  his  body 
that  they  might  bury  it.  The  Muhammadans  were  there. 
A  family  greatly  attached  to  him  brought  their  own  physician 
to  see  him,  pleading  that  a  Jiukeem  who  had  healed  the  Shah 
of  Persia  must  do  him  good.  The  Parsees  were  represented 
by  Dhunjeebhoy  and  Shapoorjee,  his  first  and  his  latest 
sons  in  the  faith  from  their  tribe.  In  the  wanderings  of 
unconsciousness,  the  words  of  Scripture,  clearly  read,  often 
recalled  his  soul  to  follow  them.  At  five  on  the  evening  of 
the  1st  December,  peacefully,  John  Wilson  entered  into  his 
rest.  In  ten  days  he  would  have  completed  his  seventy-first 


1875.]  HIS  GEAVE  IN  BOMBAY.  625 

year.  The  old  Scottish  Burial  Ground,  closed  by  an  act  of 
the  legislature,  was  opened  that  his  dust  might  lie  in  the 
same  grave  with  that  of  Margaret  and  Isabella  Wilson. 
There,  too,  lie  Anna  Bayne  and  Eobert  Nesbit,  of  whose  wife 
Hay  Bayne,  who  died  at  sea,  there  is  a  marble  record.  And 
there  was  placed  the  young  wife  of  Dr.  Valentine.  When 
we  last  stood  there  it  was  with  Dr.  Wilson,  who  said  that  by 
the  grave  which  was  to  open  for  him  he  would  take  posses- 
sion of  India  for  the  Lord.  For,  he  used  to  remark,  the  way 
to  Heaven  is  as  short  from  India  as  from  England.  While 
some  may  regret  that  the  veteran  of  threescore  and  ten  did 
not  retire  to  the  leisure  and  the  influence  to  which  his  native 
country  invited  him,  surely  there  was  a  dramatic  complete- 
ness, a  spiritual  unity,  in  the  death  which  he  died  in  Bom- 
bay. By  him  such  an  end  was  desired,  but  not  as  a 
mere  sentiment.  In  1849  he  had  written,  "  though  for  long  I 
thought  that  missionaries  should  seek  to  die  in  India  and  not 
contemplate  retiring  in  any  circumstances,  observation  has 
led  me  to  qualify  my  opinion."  He  would  have  worked  un- 
ceasingly anywhere ;  he  desired  to  go  on  working  long.  It  is 
well  for  the  natives  he  loved  and  for  the  Church  to  which  he 
is  an  example  that  he  was  permitted  to  fall  while  still  in  the 
front  of  the  battle. 

How  all  Bombay,  how  half  India,  made  great  lamenta- 
tion for  John  Wilson,  and  carried  him  to  his  burial,  the 
journals  of  the  day  record.  Governor,  Council  and  Judges ; 
University  Vice-Chancellor,  General,  and  Sir  Jamsetjee 
Jeejeebhoy ;  Missionaries,  Chaplains,  and  Portuguese  Catho- 
lics ;  the  converts,  students,  and  school  children ;  Asiatics 
and  Africans  of  every  caste,  creed,  and  hue,  reverently 
followed  all  that  was  mortal  of  the  venerated  philanthropist, 
for  two  hours  as  the  bier  was  borne  from  "  the  Cliff "  along 
Malabar  Hill,  and  down  the  road  which  sweeps  round  the 

2  s 


626  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1875. 

head  of  the  Back  Bay  to  the  Free  Church  on  the  Esplanade, 
and  then  to  the  last-resting  place. 

The  University  of  Bombay  possesses  his  library,  and  has 
commissioned  from  Mr.  J.  Adams-Acton  a  marble  bust  of  its 
virtual  founder.  An  endowment  has  been  raised  by  his 
countrymen  in  Scotland  for  memorial  scholarships  to  stimulate 
the  youth  of  the  Border  to  follow  in  his  footsteps.  Dr. 
Norman  Macleod's  proposal,  in  1870,  that  Dr.  Wilson's  Insti- 
tution should  become  the  United  Christian  College  of  Bombay, 
is  likely  to  be  carried  out.  Mr.  Vice- Chancellor  Gibbs,  at  the 
first  convocation  of  the  University  afterwards,  paid  this  official 
tribute  to  the  learning  and  reputation  of  his  predecessor : — 

"  This  venerable  missionary  brought  all  his  power,  tempered  by 
a  most  catholic  spirit,  to  the  service  of  this  University  ;  and  in  every 
branch  of  its  government,  including  the  office  which  I  have  now  the 
honour  to  hold,  gave  it  not  only  his  best  and  warmest  support,  but 
also  the  incalculable  benefit  of  his  great  experience  as  a  teacher  and 
guide  of  the  native  youth  of  this  presidency.  He  has  gone,  in  the 
fulness  of  the  age  allotted  to  man,  to  his  reward  and  his  rest  ;  the 
regret  we  entertain  for  his  loss  is  sincere,  though  perhaps  selfish,  but  all 
will,  I  think,  agree  in  the  applicability  to  him  of  the  often  quoted 
sentiment  of  the  Prince  of  Denmark  : — 

'  He  was  a  man,  take  him  for  all  and  all, 
We  shall  not  look  upon  his  like  again.' " 

Captain  E.  Mackenzie,  I.  N".,  writes  to  us  of  his  work 
among  the  officers  of  the  Indian  Navy  : — 

"  Under  his  usual  calm  and  placid  demeanour  there  lay  a  strong 
current  of  genial  humour  which  he  often  gave  vent  to  in  his  intercourse 
with  his  more  intimate  friends.  The  interest  he  manifested  in  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  officers  both  of  the  Army  and  the  Indian  Navy 
soon  made  Ambrolie  Mission  House  a  great  centre  of  attraction  for 
many  in  both  Services ;  and  the  awakening  to  spiritual  life  that  mani- 
fested itself  very  decidedly  on  the  western  side,  can  be  traced  to  the 
prayers  and  influence  of  Dr.  Wilson.  Apart  from  his  work  among  the 
native  community,  had  he  done  nothing  more  than  what  he  was  directly 
and  indirectly  instrumental  in  accomplishing  among  his  own  country- 
men of  all  classes,  he  would  have  done  enough." 


1875.]  HIS  DIVINE  CHARITY.  627 

Major-General  Ballard  and  his  wife  enjoyed  Dr.  Wilson's 
friendship  for  sixteen  years,  and  they  were  long  his  neighbours 
on  Malabar  Hill.  Mrs.  Ballard  recalls  his  care  of  the  native 
converts,  and  his  unwearied  patience  with  all  their  difficulties. 
"How  often  have  I  watched  one  after  another  go  in  at  his 
gate,  all  sure  of  a  welcome,  of  his  courteous  attention  and 
sympathy.  JSTo  matter  how  interesting  the  study  in  which  he 
was  engaged,  he  seemed  to  me  to  be  always  ready  to  lay  it 
down  if  he  could  do  the  least  good  to  a  human  soul,  or  speak 
a  kind  word  to  a  sorrowing  heart.  He  always  appealed  to 
what  was  best  in  every  man.  He  fixed  his  eye  steadily,  not 
on  the  weaknesses,  the  inconsistencies  of  frail  human  nature, 
but  on  the  inherent  dignity  of  the  soul,  the  priceless  value  of 
that  for  which  Christ  died.  I  have  heard  a  native  Christian 
of  low  caste  say  in  a  tone  that  touched  my  heart, '  Dr.  Wilson 
believes  me ;  the  Padre  Saheb  knows  I  say  true ; '  as  if  hug- 
ging to  his  soul  the  consciousness  that  some  one  trusted  him. 
I  have  heard  those  who  were  incapable  of  having  even  a 
glimpse  of  the  nobleness  of  his  nature  say  with  a  smile  that 
he  was  '  often  taken  in.'  I  never  could  admit  that  it  was  a 
reproach  to  say  so — not  unless  it  be  a  reproach  to  say  that  a 
man's  soul  is  steeped  in  charity,  the  charity  that  thinketh  no 
evil,  that  '  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  and  hopeth 
all  things.'  Yes,  he  was  often  taken  in,  and  in  nothing  do  I 
venerate  his  memory  more.  I  venerate  it,  because  when  he 
had  been  deceived  and  disappointed,  chilled  with  ingratitude 
or  wearied  with  inconsistency,  he  was  able  to  begin  afresh  to 
love  and  to  pity,  to  hope  and  to  trust.  Few  of  us  are  capable 
in  this  sense  of  being  '  often  taken  in  ! ' 

"  But  we  must  not  overlook  what  his  life  and  example 
did  for  many  of  the  natives  who  felt  his  elevating  influence 
though  they  lacked  the  moral  courage  or  the  strength  of  con- 
viction to  profess  his  faith.  A  Parsee  gentleman  said  to  me 
soon  after  his  death,  '  Dr  Wilson  did  not  make  me  a  Christian, 


628  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1875. 

but  I  hope  I  am  a  better  man  for  having  known  him  than 
I  would  otherwise  have  been.'  This  may  be  said  of  hundreds 
in  Bombay.  There  is  one  class  of  Dr.  Wilson's  native 
friends  that  I  cannot  think  of  without  sadness — the  students, 
numbering  hundreds  in  Bombay,  who  had  the  privilege  of 
being  instructed  by  him  ;  to  whom  all  the  doctrines  of  Christi- 
anity are  familiar;  who  are  convinced,  as  many  of  them 
acknowledge,  of  the  worthlessness  of  their  own  system,  but 
who  outwardly  cling  to  it  still.  I  never  saw  Dr.  Wilson  look 
so  sad  as  in  speaking  of  some  of  these — '  They  know  they 
ought  to  be  Christians.'  Surely  it  cannot  be  that  so  much 
love  and  so  much  labour  have  been  expended  in  vain  ! 

"  I  know  that  there  are  many  missionaries  doing  noble 
work  in  India  who  come  little  into  contact  with  English 
society.  They  avoid  rather  than  welcome  opportunities  of 
entering  into  it.  I  would  not  undervalue  their  labours ; 
but  it  is  impossible  not  to  regret  that  the  lesson  of  their 
lives  is  in  a  great  measure  lost  upon  their  own  countrymen. 
Of  course  it  may  be  said  that  Dr.  Wilson  possessed  special 
social  gifts,  that  few  have  acquired  such  stores  of  information, 
and  few  have  the  same  power  of  imparting  it  to  others. 
I  do  not  think  that  the  secret  of  his  popularity  lay  in  his 
gifts,  but  rather  in  his  ready  sympathy,  his  catholic  spirit, 
and  his  genial  nature.  He  had  in  a  rare  degree  the  power 
of  imparting  knowledge  without  making  others  too  painfully 
conscious  of  their  ignorance.  Then  no  uncharitable  judgments 
or  injurious  reports  were  ever  traced  to  him.  Every  man 
felt  so  safe  in  talking  to  him.  Scandal  passed  him  by,  the 
evil  weed  found  no  soil  to  take  root  in.  While  alive  to  all 
that  interested  us,  our  joys  and  our  sorrows,  he  lived  in  the 
world  but  not  of  it.  Dr.  Wilson  made  it  a  special  aim  to 
lead  his  countrymen  to  think  justly  and  kindly  of  those 
around  them,  and  he  was  often  the  connecting  link  between 
the  English  and  the  natives,  helping  them  to  understand 


1875.]  HIS  CATHOLICITY  AND  SELF-SACRIFICE.  629 

each  other  better.  Many  of  us  have  felt  that  his  presence  in 
the  midst  of  us  had  a  softening  effect  in  our  dealings  with 
the  natives  in  our  households,  leading  us  more  earnestly  to 
desire  to  do  them  good.  When  a  hasty  word  rose  to  our 
lips,  or  a  severe  thought  of  them,  the  remembrance  of  him 
seemed  to  say  '  Hush  !  there  is  one  who  would  lay  down  his 
life  to  save  their  souls  ! ' 

"  Though  he  was  an  attached  member  of  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland,  we  never  found  that  his  ecclesiastical  views 
chilled  his  friendship  for  those  of  us  who  adhered  to  other 
communions.  He  seemed  to  belong  to  all  who  loved  the 
Lord  Jesus  in  sincerity.  I  remember  with  what  tender 
regard  he  spoke  to  me  of  Dr.  Douglas,  then  Bishop  of  Bom- 
bay, and  how  deeply  he  grieved  for  him  at  a  time  of  sore 
bereavement  in  his  family.  I  believe  that  regard  was  reci- 
procal, and  that  though  they  differed  widely  in  some  articles 
of  their  creed,  each  recognised  and  honoured  in  the  other 
devotion  to  the  same  Lord.  They  see  eye  to  eye  now  ! 

"  Many  look  back  gratefully  to  Dr.  Wilson's  simple  but 
cordial  hospitality,  which  was  exercised  to  the  full  extent  of 
his  means ;  and  I  believe  his  liberal  charities  could  only  be 
kept  up  by  the  exercise  of  great  personal  self-denial.  He 
entered  cheerfully  into  society,  and  his  presence  had  an 
elevating  influence  on  conversation.  He  seemed  so  much 
part  of  Bombay  and  its  interests  that  every  visitor  of  note 
made  an  effort  to  make  his  acquaintance,  and  he  took  a 
prominent  part  on  every  occasion  of  public  interest  there.  In 
the  last  event  of  importance,  however,  during  his  life,  he  was 
missed  from  his  wonted  place.  When  Bombay  was  stirred  by 
loyal  enthusiasm  on  the  arrival  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  our 
venerable  friend  was  '  wearin'  awa'  to  the  land  o'  the  leal ! ' 
As  we  drove  past  his  darkened  house  to  join  the  brilliant 
gathering  the  night  after  the  arrival  of  the  Prince,  I  felt 
saddened  by  the  thought  that,  while  we  were  going  to  a  scene 


630  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON.  [1875. 

which  would  have  been  full  of  interest  to  him,  he  was  laid  on 
a  bed  of  suffering.  I  was  reminded,  however,  by  Sir  Bartle 
Frere,  of  the  higher  view  to  be  taken  of  his  state,  and  how  he 
was  waiting  at  the  entrance-chamber  of  the  King  of  kings. 
'  How  I  have  missed  Dr.  Wilson  from  his  place  to-day,'  said 
Sir  Bartle.  '  But  when  one  thinks  of  things  as  they  really 
are,  probably  there  is  no  man  on  earth  more  to  be  envied  at 
this  moment  than  Dr.  Wilson.  What  must  it  be  to  be  near 
the  close  of  such  a  life ! ' 

"  I  stole  into  the  silent  bungalow  to  lay  a  wreath  on  his 
coffin.  The  sun  was  rising  over  the  distant  hills  and  tinging 
the  bay  with  gold.  No  sound  broke  the  stillness  but  the 
rustle  of  the  wind  in  the  dry  palm  leaves  and  the  dash  of  the 
distant  wave,  until  I  entered  the  little  study.  There  a  voice 
of  bitter  weeping  met  my  ear  in  the  verandah — the  Native 
Christians,  sorrowing  most  of  all  that  they  should  see  his  face 
no  more.  '  We  are  so  glad,'  said  a  Native  Christian  once  to 
me, '  that  Dr.  Wilson  will  never  go  home.  You  all  go  and 
leave  us,  we  know  you  are  always  looking  longingly  to 
England,  but  Dr.  Wilson  will  never  go  home.'  Ah  !  he  had 
gone  Home  now." 


APPENDIX. 


DE.   WILSON    ON    NATIVE    EULE  IN   BAEODA  AND 
NATIVE  OPINION  ON  BEITISH  EULE. 

"GOVERNMENT  HOUSE,  SIMLA,  June  19th,  1875. 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  WILSON. — Lord  Northbrook  has  desired  me 
to  ask  you  whether  you  would  be  so  kind  as  to  let  him  know 
your  impressions  as  to  the  effect  of  recent  Baroda  events  on  the 
minds  of  the  Natives.  During  the  progress  of  the  trial  and  sub- 
sequent proceedings,  there  was  naturally  a  good  deal  of  excite- 
ment, and  not  a  few  erroneous  impressions  as  to  matters  of  fact 
got  abroad.  By  this  time  things  have  begun  to  settle  down. 
The  truth  must  be  pretty  generally  known,  and  opinion  is  pro- 
bably beginning  to  assume  its  ultimate  form.  The  present, 
therefore,  seems  a  fitting  time  to  enquire  what  effect,  for  good  or 
evil,  the  general  policy  of  Government  has  produced  on  the 
Native  mind. 

"  The  only  two  main  sources  of  information  in  our  possession 
are  of  course  official  reports  and  the  utterances  of  the  Press. 
The  former  are,  I  have  every  reason  to  believe,  good  and  trust- 
worthy as  far  as  they  go,  but  it  is  obvious  that  there  are  many 
sources  of  information  which  are  more  or  less  closed  to  those 
who  occupy  an  official  position.  As  to  the  latter — the  Press — it 
is  very  difficult  to  judge  of  the  degree  of  importance  which  is  to 
be  attached  to  the  opinions  of  any  particular  journal,  European 
or  Native. 

"  The  opinion  of  one  occupying  your  position,  with  large  ex- 
perience of  the  country  and  peculiar  opportunities  of  mixing  with 
all  classes,  would,  I  need  hardly  say,  be  very  valuable,  and  Lord 
Northbrook  hopes  that  you  will  be  willing  to  express  your  views 
to  him  with  complete  freedom. — Believe  me,  yours  very  truly, 

"  EVELYN  BARING." 


632  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 

"  MALABAR  HILL,  BOMBAY,  3d  August  1875. 

"  DEAR  SIR. — I  very  readily  reply  to  the  inquiries  which 
you  confidentially  addressed  to  me  some  time  ago  ;  but  before 
doing  this  I  find  it  necessary  to  advert  to  certain  peculiarities  in 
the  Baroda  State,  and  its  rulers,  which  it  is  needful  to  bear  in 
mind  for  the  right  understanding  of  the  position  of  affairs  in  the 
West  of  India,  as  I  shall  to  the  best  of  my  information  and 
judgment  represent  them. 

"  Among  the  natives  of  Goojarat  the  Maratha  Government  at 
Baroda  has  been  unpopular  from  its  very  commencement  to  the 
present  day.  By  these  it  is  viewed  very  much  as  a  foreign 
Government,  differing  to  a  very  considerable  extent  in  language 
and  customs,  and  exercising  authority  without  offering  the 
advantages  of  quiet,  security,  education,  enlightened  legislation, 
and  protection  of  labour  and  commerce  as  are  presented  by  the 
British  Government,  and  without  even  generally,  even  in  a  sub- 
ordinate capacity,  employing  the  natives  of  the  province.  The 
fact  to  which  I  allude  I  have  ascertained  from  varied  and  unex- 
ceptionable testimony,  and  from  complaints  thrust  upon  me  during 
my  journeyings  through  much  of  the  Gaikwar's  territories, 
by  many  respectable  natives  of  Goojarat.  Baroda  (in  which 
is  to  be  found  much  of  the  refuse  of  the  Maratha 
country,  both  Brahmanical  and  non-Brahmanical)  is  con- 
sidered a  cesspool  of  moral  corruption.  Notwithstanding  the 
productiveness  of  much  of  its  soil,  and  the  extent  of  its  land 
revenue,  and  transit  and  other  duties,  it  has  seldom,  if  ever,  been 
free  from  pecuniary  embarrassments.  No  proper  adjustment,  as 
far  as  I  am  aware,  has  been  made  between  the  claims  of  the  State 
and  those  of  the  ruling  family.  Much  caprice  has  been  shown 
in  the  exactions  made  from  the  agricultural  population.  The 
treatment  of  the  wild  tribes  was  barbarous  in  the  extreme,  till 
the  management  of  them,  by  mutual  agreement,  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  British  Government,  in  connection  with  the  Mahee- 
Kanta  agency.  The  administration  of  justice  through  the 
Gaikwar's  dominions  has  been  most  imperfect  and  partial,  lead- 
ing frequently,  I  am  persuaded,  to  the  injury  and  cruel  treatment 
both  of  the  innocent  and  guilty.  I  can  never  forget  the  shock 
which  I  got  the  first  day  of  my  entrance  into  the  Gaikwar's 
territory,  now  upwards  of  forty  years  ago,  when  the  ashes  of  a 


APPENDIX.  633 

fire  (under  a  tree)  were  pointed  out  to  me  by  a  friend  high  in 
the  Medical  Service  "of  the  East  India  Company,  over  the  blazing 
flames  of  which  four  humble  Bheels,  suspended  by  the  feet  from 
the  branch  of  a  tree,  with  their  heads  nearly  reaching  the  flames, 
had  been  executed.  My  journeyings  among  jungle  tribes,  five 
years  afterwards,  led  to  revelations  equally  painful. '  Through 
these  (in  1840)  I  learnt,  from  Mr.  James  Sutherland,  C.S., 
that  he  had  succeeded  in  inducing  Sayajee  Rao,  Gaikwar,  to 
abolish  Suttee.  I  think  it  right,  however,  in  justice  to  the 
Baroda  Government,  to  mention  that  it  has  readily  concurred 
with  the  British  Government  in  the  measures  proposed  by  it  for 
the  abolition  of  infanticide  among  the  tributaries  of  both  Govern- 
ments in  Kathiawar,  leaving  the  British  authorities  free  to  adopt 
what  action  they  might  please  in  the  exigencies  of  the  case.  It 
is  to  the  credit  of  the  Baroda  Government,  I  also  mention,  that 
it  has  allowed  the  British  Government  to  collect  and  pay  over 
to  it  its  share  of  the  Kathiawar  tribute,  thus  avoiding  such 
unhappy  collisions  as  occurred  between  the  Gaikwar  and  the 
Peshwa  of  Poona,  whom  we  succeeded  in  Kathiawar. 

"  The  Baroda  Government  has  for  long  received  much  kind- 
ness from  the  British  Government.  This,  however,  it  has  not 
sufficiently  appreciated  and  improved.  A  notable  instance  of 
this  appeared  in  the  unwillingness  of  Sayajee  Eao  to  fulfil  his 
engagement  to  pay,  for  the  support  of  the  cavalry  troops  he  was 
bound  to  maintain,  the  capital  and  interest  of  the  large  sums  of 
money  which  he  had  borrowed  from  Soukars  and  bankers, 
on  the  pledge  of  the  British  Government  that  it  should  see 
to  the  ultimate  rectification  of  the  accounts.  For  this  he 
nearly  lost  his  throne  in  1832,  when  Lord  Clare  visited  Baroda 
on  his  way  to  confer  with  Lord  William  Bentinck  at  Ajmer 
about  this  and  other  exigencies  which  had  arisen.  It  was 
only  after  repeated  entreaties,  almost  tearful,  that  he  ultimately 
accepted  the  advice  proffered  to  him  by  the  Resident  at  his 
Court,  Mr.  James  Williams,  C.S.,  as  I  find  in  a  private  letter 
addressed  to  the  brother  of  Mr.  Williams,  in  my  possession. 
Sayajee  Rao,  it  is  admitted,  had  long  had  bad  native  advisers  in 
his  employment ;  while  the  British  Residents  at  his  Court,  in 
general  able  and  honourable  men,  too  much  shrank  from  inter- 
fering with  him  even  by  friendly  advice,  except  when  the  British 


634  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 

interests  were  directly  concerned.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  he 
did  not,  more  frequently  than  he  did,  solicit  their  advice.  He 
bore  them  no  good  will ;  and  his  memory  is  associated  with 
suspicions  in  connection  with  the  lives  of  two  of  them.  He  did 
nothing  to  encourage  education  among  his  people,  though  he 
took  approbatory  cognisance  on  one  occasion  of  two  small  ver- 
nacular schools  supported  by  the  officers  of  the  British  camp. 
At  a  late  period  of  his  age  he  got  a  qualified  teacher  for  his  elder 
sons  from  one  of  the  industrial  classes  of  the  Marathas,  who,  if 
they  made  but  little  progress  in  learning,  was  not  to  be  blamed 
on  that  account.  Gunputrao,  who  succeeded  him  on  his  death, 
was  certainly  personally  the  better  of  the  instructions  which  he 
received,  though  he  did  not  succeed  in  remedying  the  grievances 
of  his  subjects,  or  in  curtailing  the  extravagant  expenses  of  his 
palace.  He  gave  away  large  sums  of  money  in  furnishing  and 
filling  the  garden  palace  at  the  Motee  Bagh  with  expensive  gew- 
gaws and  toys.  He  viewed  the  British  Government  with  respect, 
and  came  down  to  Bombay  in  1850  to  meet  Lord  Dalhousie.  He 
died  on  the  19th  November  1856. 

"  Gunput  Eao  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Khunde  Rao,  but 
little  fitted  to  hold  the  reins  of  Government  or  to  follow  good 
advice  when  proffered  to  him.  He  spoke  of  his  predecessor  as  a 
fool,  but  he  had  remarkable  vagaries  of  his  own.  He  is  said  to 
have  spent  a  lakh  and  a  quarter  of  rupees  (£12,500)  on  one 
occasion  in  reward  for  a  successful  wrestler.  He  was  fond  of 
pashuguddha  as  well  as  of  mallaguddha — of  fighting  brutes  as  well 
as  of  men,  and  spent  large  sums  of  money  in  promoting  these 
oriental  sports,  happily  now  not  very  common.  When  the 
Mutiny  broke  out  and  extended  to  serious  dimensions,  he 
was  greatly  afraid,  as  he  well  might ;  but  the  sight  of 
the  brawny  legs  and  arms  of  the  92d  Highlanders  mitigated 
his  fears,  and  called  forth  imitations  of  defence  for  himself 
in  the  formation  of  a  still  existent  regiment  with  highlandish 
habiliments,  though  without  the  cor  or  the  corpus  of  the 
valiant  Gael.  In  consideration  of  his  fidelity  and  friend- 
ship to  the  British,  there  was  remitted  to  him  the  payment  of 
the  sum  of  three  lakhs  of  rupees  per  annum  for  the  payment  of 
the  Goojarat  Irregular  Horse,  and  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
right  of  adoption  on  the  failure  of  natural  heirs.  Trusting  to 


APPENDIX.  635 

the  toleration  of  "  the  Sirkar,"  as  he  denominated  the  British 
Government,  he  had  serious  thoughts  of  becoming  a  Muham- 
madan,  and  frequently  sat  on  the  bare  ground  to  receive  instruc- 
tions in  the  doctrines  of  the  Koran  from  a  Brahman  convert  to 
Muhammadanism  seated  before  him  on  a  stool.  He  prepared  at 
an  immense  expense  a  pall  studded  with  precious  stones  and 
jewels  for  the  tomb  of  Muhammad  at  Medina,  or  failing  there, 
for  the  tomb  of  Hassan  or  Hussein  at  Kerbela  in  Mesopotamia, 
and  which,  there  having  been  no  prospect  of  acceptance  by  the 
Muhammadans,  is  still  at  Baroda.  At  the  close  of  1859  I  had 
an  interview  with  his  Highness  in  the  presence  of  the  Resident, 
Colonel  Wallace ;  when,  after  commending  him  for  the  erection 
of  a  hospital,  I  almost  succeeded  in  getting  him  to  found  a 
high  school  at  Baroda  for  the  benefit  of  his  subjects.  He  came 
to  believe,  from  suspicious  circumstances  brought  to  his  notice, 
and  from  information  which  he  received,  that  his  brother,  Mulhar 
Rao,  had  intended  to  attempt  to  murder  him  for  his  throne  ;  and 
he  put  him  into  restraint  and  confinement  under  this  belief. 
On  no  account  would  he  suffer  him  to  be  set  at  liberty,  even 
under  surveillance.  From  peculiarities  in  the  temperament  and 
actings  of  Khunde  Rao,  at  which  I  have  above  only  gently  hinted, 
considerable  sympathy  was  for  a  time  felt  for  Mulhar  Rao, 
especially  throughout  the  Maratha  country.  Nevertheless,  it  was 
a  mistake  to  set  Mulhar  Rao  on  the  throne  without  an  investigation 
of  the  charge  of  attempted  fratricide  which  had  been  brought 
against  him,  more  especially  as  Mulhar  Rao  had  been  more  than 
an  object  of  suspicion  during  the  Mutiny,  and  reckoned  from 
his  early  days  to  be  altogether  untrustworthy  and  injurious. 

"  The  remarks  which  I  have  now  to  make  bear  directly  on 
the  inquiries  which  you  have  confidentially  addressed  to  me. 
For  convenience  they  will  still  be  made  mainly  in  a  narrative  form. 

"  The  inefficient  and  devious  administration  of  Mulhar  Rao, 
and  his  bad  choice  of  agents,  were  thought  by  many  both  in  the 
Goojarat  and  Maratha  country  to  be  such  as  would  likely  bring 
on  a  crisis.  The  appointment  of  Colonel  Phayre,  a  gentleman 
well  known  to  possess  the  highest  moral  character  with  very 
extensive  knowledge  of  the  different  provinces  of  Western  India, 
to  the  Residency  of  Baroda,  rendered  the  crisis,  in  the  judgment 
of  many,  almost  certain.  The  Commission  headed  by  Sir  Richard 


636  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 

Meade,  and  its  finding,  hastened  its  advent.  It  was  intensified 
by  the  marriage  by  Mulhar  Eao  of  Lukshmibai  (illegal  in  a 
Hindoo  point  of  view  in  this  kali  yuga,  or  iron  age),  and  by  the 
suffering  peasantry,  sirdars,  officers,  etc.,  who,  more  urgently  than 
ever,  sought  relief  from  their  grievances  and  payment  of  their 
dues.  The  Gaikwar,  failing  in  his  attempt  to  corrupt  the  British 
officers  by  bribery,  resolved  to  adopt  the  desperate  measure  of 
destroying  Colonel  Phayre  by  poison — a  catastrophe  which  the 
good  providence  of  God  averted. 

"  The  vigorous  measures  which  were  adopted  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  India  to  bring  the  Gaikwar  to  trial  for  the  heinous  crime 
of  which  he  was  suspected,  had,  notwithstanding  the  circumstances 
above  alluded  to,  a  stunning  effect  upon  the  Marathas,  many  of 
them  throughout  the  country  fearing  that  he  would  be  found 
guilty.  I  have  the  strongest  belief  that  the  Gaikwar  had  his 
agents  soon  at  work  on  this  emergency.  The  tone  of  many  of 
the  native  papers  was  at  once  changed  for  the  worse,  and  many  of 
the  educated  natives,  particularly  at  Poona,  held  defiant  meetings, 
at  which  it  was  alleged  that  the  British  Government  had  no  right 
to  put  on  his  trial  an  independent  prince,  as  they  termed  the 
Gaikwar  (forgetful  of  the  subordinate  position  of  his  ancestors 
even  in  the  Maratha  empire).  The  appointment  of  two  princes 
of  high  status  in  India,  and  a  famous  administrator,  to  sit  in 
commission  for  taking  and  recording  evidence,  formed  for  the 
time  being  a  quietus  to  some  proud  spirits  ;  but  anon  the  flame 
of  discontent  again  burst  forth,  and  indignation  was  felt  that  any 
Maratha  princes  should  sanction  the  principle  of  sitting  in  a 
quasi-couii  for  the  trial  of  their  peers.  Their  last  '  dodge  '  was 
that  of  getting  up  a  loud  protestation  of  the  actual  innocence  of 
the  Gaikwar,  while  he  and  his  case  were  sub  judice.  Never  since 
I  came  to  this  country,  upwards  of  forty-six  years  ago,  have  I  felt 
so  ashamed  and  grieved  because  of  our  educational  protege's,  for 
whom  a  parental  Government  has  done  and  is  doing  so  much, 
devoting  their  talents  and  energies,  in  a  spirit  of  marked 
ingratitude,  to  the  worst  of  purposes. 

"  And  yet  the  affair  is  to  my  mind  perfectly  intelligible. 
It  has  long  been  the  ambition  of  the  Maratha  Brahmans  to 
assume  the  direction  of  the  Maratha  power.  This  is  perfectly 
obvious  from  the  usurpation  of  the  Brahman  Peshwas,  who  with 


APPENDIX.  637 

the  Putwurdhans  and  Rastias,  and  other  Brahmanical  warriors, 
made  state  prisoners  and  ciphers  of  the  Rajas  of  Satara  and  their 
Maratha  nobles,  as  so  well  brought  out  in  Grant  Duff's  History, 
and  the  condensed  notices  of  it  by  Mr.  Elphinstone,  Sir  John 
Malcolm,  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  and  others.  The  young  men  to  whom 
I  now  refer,  and  the  partisans  whom  they  have  succeeded  in 
acquiring,  do  not  intend  rebellion  at  present,  but  their  object  is  to 
depreciate  the  Paramount  Power  by  plausible  misrepresentations, 
to  promote  a  spirit  of  discontent  among  the  people,  which  may 
employ  them  at  present  and  eventually  turn  the  course  of  events 
in  the  direction  of  their  final  aspirations.  Their  consciousness  of 
the  depravities  of  Baroda  made  them  really  fear  the  absorption 
of  that  State.  Its  preservation,  under  happily  devised  arrange- 
ment, I  verily  believe  is  to  many  of  them  in  a  certain  sense  a 
disappointment !  Their  business  of  grievance-mongering  has 
had  a  termination  sooner  than  they  expected.  They  form  the 
same  party  who  go  about  the  country  poisoning  the  minds  of 
the  peasantry,  and  who  make  them  dissatisfied  with  the  terms  of 
their  holdings,  notwithstanding  their  visible  progress  in  social 
prosperity,  in  the  extension  of  their  fields,  in  the  improvement  of 
their  dwellings,  utensils,  and  clothing.  Many  of  them  I  know 
to  be  a  disappointment  and  a  grief  to  their  aged  connections. 
A  worthy  old  Brahman  when  speaking  of  them  to  me  lately 
said,  with  tears  running  down  his  cheeks,  '  they  have  become 
ashamed  of  their  parents  and  abandon  them,  betaking  themselves 
to  vicious  courses ;  what  they  may  erelong  do  no  man  can  tell.' 
In  connection  with  them  I  would  observe,  in  passing,  that  we 
have  a  portion  of  educated  youth  of  a  very  different  spirit  from 
theirs.  At  the  same  time  we  must  have  a  thorough  revision  of 
the  educational  system.  We  must  give  useful  instruction  to  the 
masses,  that  they  may  not  be  the  dupes  of  the  designing ;  and 
leave  particular  classes,  hitherto  too  highly  favoured,  to  work 
their  way  upwards  by  their  own  merits.  It  has  been  rightly 
said  of  Scotland  that  there  is  a  pathway  to  the  Universities  from 
every  parish  in  the  land ;  but  the  youth  going  to  these  Univer- 
sities have  generally  to  pay  for  their  own  education. 

"  In  conclusion,  keeping  your  queries  in  view,  I  may  truth- 
fully say  that,  after  much  observation  and  inquiry,  I  am  con- 
vinced that  Goojarat  has  all  along  had  faith  in  the  righteousness 


638  LIFE  OF  JOHN  WILSON. 

and  wisdom  of  the  proceedings  of  the  British  Government,  and 
that  the  Maharashtra,  exclusive  of  a  band  of  self-conceited  and 
mischievous  youth  (worthy  of  a  term  or  two  in  the  house  of 
correction),  now  sees  that  the  Government,  though  misrepre- 
sented for  some  time  as  to  its  motives  and  endeavours,  is  really 
deserving  of  confidence  and  praise.  The  late  occurrences  at 
Baroda  will  occupy  a  chapter  in  the  history  of  India  of  a  most 
instructive  character;  and  the  blessing  of  God  will  rest  on 
those  who  have  taught  the  Princes  of  India  that  they  have  duties 
to  their  subjects  to  discharge,  which  cannot  be  overlooked  with- 
out the  endangerment  of  their  own  position  even  with  that 
benign  Government  which  is  faithful  to  the  spirit  of  all  its 
engagements. — I  am,  my  dear  Major  BARING,  with  the  greatest 
respect  for  His  Excellency  the  VICEROY,  yours  truly, 

"  JOHN  WILSON." 

"  GOVERNMENT  HOUSE,  SIMLA,  August  7,  1875. 

"  DEAR  DR.  WILSON. — I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for 
your  most  interesting  letter  on  the  subject  of  the  effect  of  the 
action  taken  at  Baroda  upon  native  opinions  in  the  Bombay 
Presidency.  It  is  the  more  valuable  as  you  have  so  long  an 
experience,  and  many  means  of  forming  a  sound  judgment  which 
officers  of  Government  do  not  possess,  or  at  least  do  not  so 
fully  possess. 

"  There  are  two  subjects  which  are  raised  by  the  experience 
we  have  lately  acquired  upon  which,  at  your  leisure,  I  should 
much  like  to  know  what  you  think : — First.  Is  it  desirable  to 
impose  any  check  upon  the  Native  Press,  or  to  endeavour  to 
counteract  the  effect  of  the  disloyal  native  papers  by  supporting 
papers  which  will  put  forward  correct  views  1  Second.  Has  the 
time  arrived  for  making  those  who  receive  a  high  English  educa- 
tion pay  the  whole  cost  of  it,  limiting  the  aid  of  the  State  to 
those  youths  who,  by  distinguishing  themselves  in  the  lower 
schools,  show  that  they  deserve  assistance  in  completing  their 
education,  thereby  bringing  fully  into  operation  the  principles 
expounded  in  the  Educational  Despatch  of  1854? — Yours  very 
sincerely,  NORTHBROOK." 


INDEX. 


AAEON,  tomb  of,  363. 
Aberdeen  University,  211,  267. 
Aboo,  293,  337. 
Aborigines  of  India,  318. 
Abyssinian  youths,  251,  357,  449,  592, 
596. 

expedition,  593. 

Accadian  bricks,  331. 
Adam,  Dr.,  16. 

John,  43. 

Aden  Jews,  262,  358. 

Administration  reports,  314,  498. 

Adoption,  law  of,  342,  432. 

Adowa,  251. 

Adultery,  549. 

JSdesius,  358. 

Afghan  war,  231,  265,  304,  353. 

Africa,  249,  399,  583. 

Agathokles,  323. 

Agricultural  Society  of  Bombay,  398. 

Agriculture  of  Lauderdale,  6. 

Ahmedabad,  53,  146,  215. 

Ahriman,  224,  226. 

Aitchison's  Treaties,  169. 

Mr.  C.  U.,  615. 

Aitken,  Rev.  Mr.,  432. 
Ajmer,  294,  521. 
Ajunta,  276,  278. 
Akbar  Khan,  303. 
Albert,  Prince,  416. 
Albuquerque,  16,  170. 
Aldeen,  447. 

Alexander  the  Great,  431,  443. 
Alexandria,  37,  449. 
Alimenting  converts,  254. 
Aljuva,  in  Goa,  168. 
Allahabad  Conference,  128,  615. 

pillar,  323. 

presbytery,  394. 

Alphabets,  325. 

Alya  Bai,  306. 

Amba  Bhowanee,  291. 

Ambrolie  Mission  House,  78,  570. 

Ambrose,  448. 

Ameers  of  Sindh,  446. 

American  missions,  27,  50,  369,  624. 

Amharic,  251,  594. 


Andaman  Islands,  613. 

Anderson  of  Madras,  255. 

Anglo-Indian  Christian  Union,  269. 

Animal  food,  528. 

Anjengo,  53. 

Annandale,  12. 

Anquetil.     See  Perron. 

Anstey,  Mr.  C.,  551,  574. 

Ant-eater,  450. 

Anti-conversion  memorial,  238. 

Antigonus,  329. 

Antiochus  the  Great,  326. 

Apocrypha,  275. 

Apostles  as  examples,  140. 

Arabian  Jews,  261,  364. 

Aravullee  hills,  293. 

Archaeological  Survey,  467. 

Archduke  Joseph,  373. 

Ardaseer  Framjee,  460,  565. 

Ardeshir  Dhunjeesha,  215. 

Argyll,  the  Marquis  of,  5. 

Arian  alphabet,  325. 

Arnould,  Sir  Joseph,  544,  551. 

Armenians,  125,  231,  235,  320,  366. 

Arrian,  331,  444. 

Arthur,  Sir  George,  303,  305,  343. 

Aryan  civilisation,  450. 

Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  313,  320. 

of  Bombay,  315,  331,  344,  604. 

of  Paris,  412. 

Koyal,  313,  320. 

Asoka,  312,  327,  332. 
Assye,  battle  of,  43,  279. 
Astronomical  Society,  313. 
Athenaeus,  331. 
Auckland,  Lord,  240,  302,  304. 
Augustine's  Confessions,  2,  430. 

De  Civitate  Dei,  544. 

Augustinians  in  Goa,  169. 
Aungier,  39. 
Aurungabad,  153. 
Aurungzeb,  153. 
Avasta.    See  Zand. 
Avatars,  106,  109. 
Awdry,  Sir  John,  235. 

BABBINGTON,  Dr.,  322, 


640 


INDEX. 


Baber,  T.  H.,  249,  279. 

Back  Bay,  575,  625. 

Bactrian  Greek,  325. 

Badaween,  363,  366,  595. 

Banajees,  216. 

Banias,  369. 

Bank  of  Bombay,  574. 

Bankote,  52. 

Balkh,  431. 

Ballautyne,  Mr.  J.,  343. 

Ballard,  Mrs.,  627. 

Baptist  Missions,  246,  401. 

Bapu  Mazda,  439. 

Bard,  Native,  286. 

Baroda,    15,   185,  283,   428,   523,    618, 

631. 

Baring,  Major  E.,  631. 
Basel  Mission,  250. 
Basil  the  Great,  601. 
Bassein,  40. 

Bayne,  the  Sisters,  32,  263,  297,  625. 
Beaconsfield,  Lord,  124,  125. 
Beawur,  521. 
Beckwith,  Sir  S.,  178. 
Bees,  Indian,  434. 
Beejapore  Library,  482. 
Beke,  Dr.,  362. 
Behari  Lai  Singh,  396. 
Behistun  inscription,  331. 
Beith,  Dr.,  402. 
Bell,  Dr.  A.,  75. 
Bellis,  Rev.  G.,  256. 
Bengal  Asiatic  Society,  313,  320. 
Benares,  Massacre  of,  43. 

-  pundits,  334. 
Beni-Israel.     See  Jews. 
Bennie,  Rev.  J.,  134. 
Bentinck,   Lord  W.,  65,   125,  229,  240, 

397. 

Berlin  Mission,  395. 
Bernier,  261,  413. 
Berwickshire,  3,  5,  609. 
Bexley,  Lord,  237. 
Beyt,  201. 
Bhagat,  a,  290. 

Bhagavata  Purana,  203,  318,  333,  549. 
Bhang,  445. 

Bhau  Daji,  Dr.,  553,  602. 
Bheels,  293. 
Bhonsla  family,  394. 
Bhooj,  198. 
Bhownuggur,  192. 
Bhundarkur,  R.  G.,  553. 
Bible  in  Goa,  274. 

—  Society,  14,  20,  270,  460,  613. 
Translations,    50,    64,    260,    337, 

460. 

Bibliotheca  Indica,  315. 
Birdwood,  Dr.  G.,  511. 


Bishop's  Walk,  The,  376. 

Black,  Dr.,  357. 

Blackwood's  Magazine,  198. 

Blumhardt,  Rev.  Mr.,  594. 

Boden,  Colonel,  315. 

Bodleian  Library,  548. 

Bohoras,  455. 

Bombay,  first  influences  on  Wilson, 
15  ;  foundation  of,  38  ;  Governors, 
45  ;  population  in  1833,  78  ;  Asiatic 
Society,  315,  331,  344,  398  ;  the 
Scotch  Kirk  Disruption,  380;  Quarterly 
Review,  411  ;  mutiny  in,  505  ;  Uni- 
versity, 536  ;  native  gentlemen,  537  ; 
trade,  572  ;  mania,  574  ;  Testimonial 
to  Dr.  Wilson,  603 ;  Missions,  617  ; 
influence,  623. 

Bonar,  Dr.  A.,  357,  367. 

Mr.  A.,  96. 

Dr.  J.  J.,  25. 

Bonn,  425. 

Bopp,  219,  480. 

Border  Men  in  India,  5. 

Boston,  Thomas,  11. 

Bowen,  Rev.  Mr.,  624. 

Brahma,  105. 

Brahmanical  discussions,  103,  111. 

Brahmans,  176,  195,  308,  392,  545. 

Braidwood  of  Madras,  225. 

Brainerd,  Rev.  David,  18. 

Breadalbane,  Marquis  of,  388. 

Brewster,  Sir  David,  12,  410. 

Briggs,  Colonel,  315,  425. 

British  &  Foreign  Evangel.  Review,  411. 

Broach,  38. 

Brookes,  Augustus,  151. 

Broughton,  Lord,  302. 

Brown  of  Langton,  14,  30. 

Dr.  T.,  388. 

Browning,  Robert,  98. 

Brunton,  Professor,  22,  85,  380,  384. 

Bryce,  Dr.,  158. 

Buchan  of  Kelloe,  481. 

Buchanan,  Claudius,  161,  447. 
Dr.  J.,  402. 


Buckland,  Dean,  414. 
Buda,  373. 

Buddhism,  278,  282,  312,  545. 
Buist,  Dr.,  358,  579. 
Bulgarians,  370. 
Bundeshne,  222. 
Bunting,  Dr.,  401. 
Burgess,  Mr.  J.,  192,  327. 
Burke,  314. 
Burkhardt,  287. 
Burma,  Missions  in,  460. 
Burne,  Minstrel,  4. 
Burnouff,  317,  332,  343,  463. 
Burns,  197. 


INDEX. 


641 


Burton,  R.  F.,  587. 
Byculla  Schools,  241. 

CABUL,  125,  431,  433. 
Caesarism,  390. 
Cairo,  360. 
Cajetan,  St.,  167. 
Calcutta  Review,  411. 

Mission,  403. 

Callian,  38,  50,  157. 
Calvin,  166. 

Calvinistic  Methodists,  291. 
Cameron,  R.,  389. 
Camoens,  138. 
Campbell,  Mr.,  245. 

Dr.,  245,  284. 

John,  588. 

Candlish,  Dr.,  96,  262,  400,  436. 
Candy,  Captain,  76. 
Canning,  Lady,  470. 

Lord,  42,  132,  198,  314,  397,  431, 

467,  513. 

Sir  Stratford,  370. 

Cape  Town,  34,  399. 

Carey,  Dr.,  51,  58,  66,  135,  198,  623. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  12. 

Carnac,  Sir  J.  R.,  237,  241,  295. 

Carpenter,  Miss,  586. 

Caste,  393,  492. 

Catechumens,  School  of,  449. 

Cator,  Peter,  340. 

Cave-temples,  152,  318. 

Commission,  468. 

Census  of  India,  314. 

Ceylon  Government,  260. 

Chaitunya,  547. 

Chalmers,  Dr.,  139,  184,  389,  405. 

Chandragupta,  331. 

Chaplains,  English,  158,  315,  618. 

Scotch,  378. 

Charters,  E.  I.  Co's.,  132,  229,  447,  530. 

Chaucer,  56. 

Chevers,  Dr.  N.,  543. 

Child,  Sir  John,  41. 

Chinese  Missions,  135. 

Chinturam,  524. 

Cholera,  241,  301. 

Chorao,  166. 

Christianity  in  the  East,  288. 

Christlieb,  Professor,  610. 

Chuma,  590. 

Church  History,  320,  379. 

Missionary  Society,  51,  144. 

and  State  Question,  390. 

Cicero,  159. 

Civilians  in  India,  71,  91,  139,  325. 

Clare,  Earl  of,  77,  125. 

Clement,  449. 

Clerk,  Sir  George,  427. 


Cochin  Jews,  262. 

Cockburn,  Lord,  376,  621. 

Coins,  325. 

Colaba,  64,  428. 

Colbert,  218. 

Colebrooke,  99,  192,  313. 

College  de  France,  332. 

Colombo,  275. 

Colquhoun,  Mr.  J.  C.,  237. 

Comorin,  first  view  of,  34. 

Company,  E.  I.,  151, 160,  229,  339,  619. 

Competition-Wallas,  569. 

Confessions  of  Faith,  606. 

Connon,  Mr.,  604. 

Conscience,    rights    of,    230,    236,    239, 

242,  310,  378,  392,  455,  616. 
Constantino  de  Braganza,  170. 
Constantinople,  369. 
Converts.     See  Native  Christians. 
Cooper,  Rev.  J.,  52,  60,  515. 

Rev.  J.  G.,  565. 

Coorg,  353. 
Copenhagen,  219. 
Copperplate  grants,  319. 
Copts,  359. 
Cormack,  Dr.,  9,  66. 

Sir  J.  R.,  13. 

Corpus  Inscriptionum  Indicarum,  325. 

Cosens,  Rev.  Mr.,  9. 

Cost  of  living  in  Bombay,  90,  573. 

Cotes,  Rev.  Mr.,  439,  446. 

Cotineau,  164. 

Cotton,  Bishop,  67,  158,  537,  615. 

Cotton  in  India,  45,  572. 

Couch,  Sir  R.,  602. 

Couper,  Sir  George,  521. 

Covenanting,  last  century,  18. 

Crawford,  Rev.  A.,  52. 

Criticism,  Biblical,  607. 

Crocodile  pool,  441. 

Cromwell  and  Bombay,  38. 

Csoma.     See  Korose. 

Cufic  Inscriptions,  345. 

Cunningham,  General,  323,  500. 

Principal,  23,  96. 

Cust,  Mr.  R.  N.,  454,  515. 
Cutch.     See  Kutch. 
Cuttack,  332. 
Cynewulf,  244. 
Cyrus,  132,  214. 

DADOBA  PANDURANQ,  266,  560. 
Dadyshets,  216. 
Dakore,  293. 
Dalhousie,  Earl  of,  388. 

Marquis  of,  42,  133,  198,  431,  434, 

447. 

Daman,  182. 
Damascus,  366. 


2T 


642 


INDEX. 


Daniel  Deronda,  352. 

Danube,  370. 

Darab  Dustoor,  218. 

Davidson,  Colonel,  141,  610. 

Dealtry,  Bishop,  451. 

D'Aubigne,  Merle,  410. 

Decken,  Baron  von  der,  587,  589. 

De  Conti,  465. 

Delhi,  614. 

Dellon,  M.,  162. 

Devil-worship,  451. 

Denmark,  336,  416. 

Dennistouns   of  Dennistoun,    420,    480, 

609. 

Dhagob,  464. 
Dharana,  620. 
Dharwar,  172. 
Dheds,  457,  464. 
Dhoondra  Sect,  196. 
Dhuleep  Singh,  440,  582. 
Dhunjeebhoy  Framjee,  604. 
Nowrojee,    Rev.,    228,    232,    296, 

357,  371,  394,  402,  457,  624. 
Diamper,  Synod  of,  274. 
Dickinson,  Colonel,  337,  347. 

-  Mr.,  320. 
Dinkur  Rao,  560. 
Disruption  of  Kirk,  374,  385. 
Dm,  214. 
Divorce,  115,  601. 
Doctor  of  Divinity,  212. 
Dollinger,  Dr.,  610. 
Dorabjee  Nanabhoy,  216: 
Dosabhoy  Sohrabjee,  226. 
Douglas,  Bishop,  629. 

Mr.  James,  602. 

Miss,  460. 

Dowlutabad,  153. 

Drought,  147. 

Drummond,  Dr.,  315. 

Druzes,  369. 

Duff,  Dr.  A.,  17,  50,   79,  93,  130,  255, 

267,  281,  445,  535. 

Captain  Grant,  315. 

Mr.  M.  E.  Grant,  622. 

Dukshina  Fund,  47. 

Duncan,  Jonathan,  15,  41,  314. 

Dr.  John,  371. 

Dunlop,  Mr.,  M.P.,  388. 
Dunse,  197. 

Durand,  Sir  H.,  431,  566. 
Dustoors,  222,  350. 
Dntt  Family,  560. 
Dwarka,  201. 

EASTERN  CHRISTIANS,  92,  364. 
East  Indians,  145. 
Eastwick,  Captain,  446. 
E.  B  ,  210,  226. 


Ecclesiastical  Establishment,  158. 
Edal  Daroo,  226. 
Edicts  of  Asoka,  312,  327. 
Edinburgh,  15,  159. 

—  Medical  Missionary  Society,  482. 
Edmonstone,  Sir  G.,  521. 
Education,  English,  77,  245,  399,  557. 

—  See  Female. 

-  Despatch  of  1854,  532,  619. 
in  Bombay,  47,  69,  74,  252,  257, 

437,  536,  626. 

—  in  Ceylon,  260. 
in  Egypt,  360. 

-  in  India,  32,  273,  447,   452,  458, 
529,  614,  618. 

in  Scotland,  9,  605. 

in  Sepoy  Army,  287. 

Edur,  292. 
Egypt,  360. 

—  young,  434,  443. 
Eisdaile,  Professor,  23. 
Elephanta,  465,  471. 
Elephant-baiting,  185. 
Eliot,  George,  352. 
John,  27. 

Elliot,  Sir  W.,  322,  467. 

Elisaeus,  221. 

Elora,  152,  193. 

Ellenborough,  Lord,  45,  206,  302,  309. 

Elphinstone  College,  48,  252,  449. 

Mountstuart,  42,  315,  539. 

Lord,  257,  458,  498,  509,  534. 


Endowments  of  Idols,  161. 

English  Language  in  India,  77,  245,  399, 

577.  616. 
Erastiauism,  132. 
Erskiue,  Claude,  314. 

-  W.,  221,  315,  342. 
Erskines,  The,  389. 
Escombe,  Mr.,  156. 
Esther,  214. 
Eunuchs,  201,  250. 

Europeans  in  India,  269,  437,  447,  628. 
Everest,  Sir  G.,  409. 
Evil,  existence  of,  296. 
Ewart,  Dr.  D.,  17,  85. 
Examinations,  483. 
Excavations  of  Petra  and  India,  365. 

FABER,  465. 

Faerie  Queen,  The,  272. 

Fairbairn,  Principal,  9. 

Dr.  J.,  9. 

Falconer,  Dr.,  420. 
Falkland,  Viscount,  432. 
Family  Life  in  India,  264,  559. 
Fane,  Sir  H.,  266. 
Farish,  Hon.  Mr.,  76,  125,  236. 
Farrar,  Canon,  142. 


INDEX. 


643 


Farrar,  Rev.  Mr.,  142. 

Female  Education  in  India,  32,  69,  148, 

213,  249,  264,  449,  452,  600. 
Fergusson,  Mr.  J.,  192,  465. 
Finances  of  India,  609,  619. 
Finn,  Consul,  369. 
Fitzgerald,  Sir  S.,  595,  602. 
Fleming,  Professor,  410. 
Forbes,  Rev.  Dr.,  389. 

Sir  Charles,  46,  237,  315. 

James,  53. 

Forjett,  Mr.,  232,  506. 

Forster,  G.,  413. 

Framjee  Aspandiarjee,  223,  227. 

Bomanjee,  229,  236,  238. 

Franciscans  in  Goa,  171. 

Free  Church  of  Scotland,  377,  383,  386, 

390,  403,  621. 
French,  Bishop,  128,  456,  516. 

scholarship,  218. 

Frere,  Sir  Bartle,   250,  303,  305,   599, 
.    619,  630. 

John  Hookham,  354. 

Friend  of  India,  474,  493. 
Frumentius,  358. 
Fryer,  Dr.,  216. 
Futh  Khan,  287. 
Fyvie,  Rev.  Mr.,  183,  460. 

GABARS  of  Persia,  370.    See  also  Parsees. 
Gaelic  Schools,  260. 

Gaikwars  of  Baroda,  187,  191,  523,  633. 
Gairsoppa  Falls,  276. 
Gandagnoli,  Philip,  113. 
Ganesh,  340. 
Gardner,  Rev.  W.,  458. 
Gautama,  545. 
Gawan  Douglas,  4. 
Gazetteer  of  India,  314. 
Geographical  Society,  412,  414. 
General   Assembly's   Meetings,    89,    96, 
377,  388,  401,  416. 

Institution,  78,  87,  380. 

Pastoral,  268. 

Geology  of  Aden,  358. 

Lebanon,  419. 

Perim,  420. 

Sindh,  442. 

German  Oriental  Society,  425. 

Germany,  390. 

Ghauts,  Western,  142. 

Ghuznee,  Muhammad  of,  205. 

Gibbon,  224. 

Gibbs,  Hon.  Mr.,  626. 

Gilbert,  General,  431. 

Gillespie,  389. 

Girnar,  204,  320,  327. 

Glasgow,  Dr.,  294. 

Missionary  Society,  399. 


Glasgow  University,  161. 

Glenelg,  Lord,  131,  237. 

Goa,  162,  273. 

Godavery,  142. 

Goethe,  312. 

Gogo,  192,  296. 

Goldstiicker,  Th.,  496,  581. 

Gonds,  395,  399. 

Goojarat,  286,  638. 

Goojaratee,  50,  345,  357,  460,  491. 

Gordon,  Rev.  Dr.  R.,  11,  387. 

Gossner,  Pastor,  395. 

Governors  of  Bombay,  45. 

Graham,  Rev.  Dr.,  364. 

Dr.  A.,  383 

Grant-in-aid  System,  260,  530. 
Grant,  Sir  A.,  577. 

Charles,  131. 

Sir  J.  P.,  44. 


Sir  Robert,  131,  257,  402. 

Medical  College,  402. 

Granth,  The,  444. 

Graves,  Rev.  Mr.,  64. 

Gray,  Rev.  J.,  197,  444. 

Greece  and  India,  329. 

Grey,  Rev.  Dr.  H.,  11. 

Groves,  Anthony,  127. 

Gumpert  Rao,  Gaikwar,  191. 

Gunputrao,  Navalkar,  Rev.,  617. 

Gurney,  W.  B.,  401. 

Guthrie,  James,  the  Covenanter,  5. 

the  traveller,  413. 

Guzerat,  battle,  431. 
Gypsies,  373. 

HABEAS  CORPUS  Writs,  233,  617. 
Hadjee  Muhammad  Hashim,  113. 
Haidarabad,  Sindh,  444. 
Haider  Khan,  266. 
Haileybury,  314. 
Haines,  Captain,  358. 
Hakluyt,  410. 
Halhed's  Grammar,  228. 
Hall,  Rev.  Mr.,  51. 

Robert,  314. 

Hamadan,  214. 
Hamilton,  Rev.  Dr.  J.,  400. 
Sir  William,  16. 


Hamiltonian  System,  59. 
Hammer,  Baron,  315. 
Hanna,  Rev.  Dr.,  579. 
Hanuman  Idol,  146,  156. 
Hardinge,  Lord,  415,  427,  466. 
Harkness,  Dr.,  466,  579. 
Hasbaryah,  369. 
Hassan  Effendi,  360. 
Hastings,  Lord,  14,  42,  433,  623. 

-  Warren,  313. 
Haug,  Professor,  214,  610. 


644 


INDEX. 


Havelock,  Sir  H.,  397,  454. 

Hay,  Rev.  J.,  267. 

Heber,  Bishop,  185,  188,  285. 

Hebrew,  367. 

Hedjaz  of  Arabia,  287. 

Helena,  St.,  15. 

Henderson,  Professor,  435. 

Dr.  J.,  413. 

Henry,  Prince,  274. 
Herat,  431. 
Herbad,  222. 
Herbert,  George,  408. 

Sir  T.,  216. 

High  School  of  Edinburgh,  16,  197,  465. 

Hill,  Sir  W.,  302,  395. 

Hill  Stations  in  India,  178. 

Himalayas,  276. 

Himyarite  dynasty,  124,  359,  416. 

Hindoo  comedy,  157. 

Hindooism,  159,  187,  545,  619. 

Hindostanee,  14. 

Hislop,  Stephen,  395,  565. 

Hiuen,  Thsang,  192. 

Hiwara,  149. 

Hodgson,  Brian,  332. 

Hogg,  the  Ettrick  Shepherd,  4,  198. 

Holkar,  Maharaja,  191,  526,  618. 

Holms,  Mr.,  M.P.,  390. 

Hor,  Mount,  363. 

Hormasdjee  Pestonjee,   Rev.,   227,   232, 

242,  427. 

Hormuzd,  215,  224. 
Hornby,  Governor,  224. 
Horndean,  12. 

Horrors  of  India  removed,  619. 
Hospital,  Sir  J.  Jeejeebhoy's,  350. 
Hot  Winds,  516. 
Huchi'a  Case,  230. 
Hugel,  Baron,  324,  410,  413. 
Hughes,  Rev.  Josiah,  84. 
Huleh,  Lake,  368. 
Human  Sacrifices,  620. 
Hungary,  373. 
Hunter,  Rev.  R.,  433,  565. 
Hurnee,  52,  60,  273. 
Hyde,  Dr.,  228. 
Hymns,  132,  606. 

IDOL  Endowments,  447. 

Idolatry  and  East  India  Company,  151, 

160,  183,  229,  268,  280,  339,  513,  620. 
Incarnation  of  Christ,  107. 
India,  Border  Men  in,  5. 

European  life  in,  206. 

as  it  is,  569. 

Indus,  263. 

Infanticide,  15,  67,  184,  197,  427,  488, 

620.     See  also  Education. 
Inglis,  Rev.  Dr.,  378. 


Inquisition  in  India,  162,  167,  274. 
Inscriptions,  205,  321,  324,  330,  345, 

359,  416,  466. 
Jrish  Administrators,  613. 

Mission,  294. 

Politics,  185. 

-  Presbyterian  Church,  256,  402. 
Irrigation,  145. 
Irving,  Edward,  12. 

—  General,  610. 
Isenberg,  Rev.  Mr.,  251. 
Italy,  390. 

JACOB,  General  Le  Grand,  296,  327. 

Jacob's  Well,  367. 

Jacquemont,  V.,  413. 

Jacquet,  M.,  322. 

Jadao  Rana,  215. 

Jains,  148,  192,  295. 

Jalua,  154,  157. 

Jam  of  Jokees,  440. 

Jameson,  Major,  264. 

—  Professor,  276. 
Sir  George,  383. 


Jamkhundee  Chief,  446,  622. 

Jats,  442. 

Jebel  el  Nur,  362. 

Jebel  Musa,  362. 

Jeddah,  359. 

Jeejeebhoy  Dadabhoy,  227. 

Sir  Jamsetjee,  280,  350,  555. 

Jeffrey,  Francis,  376,  621. 

Jeffreys,  Archdeacon,  516. 

Jenkins,  Sir  R.,  394. 

Jennings,  Rev.  Mr.,  440. 

Jerusalem,  366,  369. 

Jervis,  Colonel,  47,  50,  409,  412. 

Jews,  123,  262,  355,  364,  371,  426. 

Jeypore,  293. 

Jhadeja  Rajpoots,  196,  489. 

Jilgaum,  153. 

Joanna,  Princes  of,  253,  561. 

Jodhpore,  287,  619. 

—  Maharaja,  517. 
Johannes,  King,  596. 
John  Knox  in  Portuguese,  170.    See  Knox 
Johnston  of  Madras,  255. 
Jokees,  440. 
Jones,  Sir  William,  99,  111,  218,  313, 

331. 

Joonagurh,  204,  307,  321. 
Jordan,  369. 

Joseph  Mikhail,  579,  596. 
Josephus  a  Doloribus,  162. 
Joynt,  Dr.,  624. 
Juan  de  Castro,  401. 
Judoonath,  Maharaj,  550. 
Judson,  Dr.,  51,  460. 
Jugganath,  186,  202,  547. 


INDEX. 


645 


Jugganath  Sunkersett,  451,  510. 
Junar,  156,  336. 
Jung  Bahadoor,  451. 

KABEEB,  547. 
Kadmees,  223. 
Kadseah,  battle,  214. 
Kaffraria,  134,  399. 
Kailas  of  Elora,  152. 
Kalidasa's  Raghuvansa,  36. 

Sakoont'ala,  312. 

Kalliana.     See  Callian. 
Kamptee,  395,  433. 
Kandahar,  266. 
Karens,  460. 
Karli,  330,  474. 
Kashmere,  410,  413. 
Kathiawar,  15,  256. 
Katkarees,  the,  142. 
Katodes,  346. 
Kaye,  Sir  John,  304. 
Kazan,  398. 
Keith,  Dr.,  357,  372. 
Kelly's  Hymns,  624. 
Kennedy,  Dr.,  347. 

Colonel  Vans,  315. 

Kerman,  338. 

Kern,  Professor,  312,  328. 

Keroda's  Case,  230. 

Kerr,  Rev.  J.,  294. 

Kerridge,  215. 

Keshub,  Chunder  Sen,  356,  601. 

Khandesh,  293. 

Khandoba,  299. 

Khonds,  620. 

Khorassan,  214. 

Khurda  Avasta,  423. 

Kingussie,  13. 

Kinnaird,  Lord,  513. 

Kirk,  Dr.,  250,  619. 

Kirkland,  Mr.,  184. 

Kisundas,  Joguldas,  104. 

Kitto,  Dr.,  127. 

Kittoe,  Major,  466. 

Knox,  John,  389. 

Koeppen,  312. 

Kolhapore,  Raja  of,  173,  505. 

Konig,  Mr.,  425. 

Koran,  120,  122. 

Korigaum,  145. 

Korose,  Csoma  Sandor,  373. 

Krija,  342. 

Krishna  river,  299. 

worship,  107,  186,  202,  308,  546. 

Kurachee,  439. 

Kursundass  Mooljee,  550. 

Kntch,  15,  197,  455. 

Kutchee,  198,  200,  444. 

LADIES'  Female  Education  Society,  264 


Laing,  Mr.  S.,  615.    •: 

Lammermoors,  3. 

Lands  of  the  Bible',  The,  363,  411. 

Lang,  Colonel,  292,  321. 

Languages  of  India,  57. 

Lassen,  Prof.,  323,  344,  425,  476,  494. 

Lauder,  3,  5,  400,  609. 

Lauderdale,  3. 

Laurie,  Rev.  J.,  34,  63. 

Law,  Hindoo  and  Muhammadan,  133. 

Parsee,  343. 

Law,  Mr.,  91. 

Lawrence,    Lord,    109,    133,  240,   397, 
513,  578,  601. 

Sir  George,  303,  517. 

Sir  Henry,  293,  427. 

Leader,  4,  609. 

Leang,  Afa,  136. 

Learning  and  Missionaries,  27,  319,  521, 

687. 

Lebanon,  369,  419,  454. 
Lee,  Principal,  22,  268. 

Dr.,  113. 

Leith,  Dr.,  437. 
Leon  de  Laborde,  360. 
Lepsius,  360. 
Leslie,  Rev.  A.,  397. 

Sir  John,  16. 

Lewis,  Dr.  J.,  400. 
Leyden,  Dr.,  5,  198. 

University,  534. 

Library,  Bombay,  315. 

Free  Church  Mission,  422. 

Dr.  Wilson's,  626. 

Lieder,  Mr.,  359,  426. 
Linant  de  Bellefonds,  359. 
Linga,  the,  306,  464. 
Lions  Abyssinian,  449. 

of  Kutch,  201. 

Literary  Society  of  Bombay,  315. 

Lithography  in  India,  415. 

Livingstone,  Dr.,  30,  250,  583,  589,  591. 

Livingstonia,  399,  589. 

Local  Army,  569. 

London  Missionary  Society,  84. 

Londonderry,  Marquis  of,  411. 

Lord,  Chaplain,  315. 

Lorimer,  Dr.,  425. 

Louis  Napoleon,  589. 

Lovedale,  134,  399. 

Low,  General,  516. 

Lowjee,  216. 

Lubbock,  Sir  J.,  414. 

Lukshmun,  Gunput,  356. 

Lumsden,  Sir  H.,  266. 

Lusiads,  The,  138. 

Luther,  98,  169. 

Lyall,  Mr.  A.  C.,  109. 

Lynch,  Captain,  466. 


646 


INDEX. 


M'CHEYNE,  Rev.  Mr.,  357. 
M'Gown,  Dr.,  454. 
M'Leod,  Sir  D.,  318,  395. 
Macaulay,  Lord,  77,  79,  206,  244. 
Macdonakl,  Dr.,  623. 

Dr.,  of  Ferintosh,  401. 

Mackay,  Dr.  W.  S.,  17,  85,  403. 
Mackenzie,  Colonel,  322. 

General  Colin,  303,  460. 

Mrs.,  456. 

Captain  R.,  626. 

Mackintosh,  Sir  J.,  221,  313. 
Maclagan,  Mr.  D.,  406,  608. 
Macleod,  Dr.  Norman,  32,  520,  586, 

598,  626. 

Macnaghten,  Sir  W.  H.,  45,  304. 
Madhava  Rao,  Sir,  618. 
Madras  Government,  257. 

Mission,  254,  381,  402. 

Magas,  329. 

Maghadee,  325. 

Magi,  210. 

Magyars,  373. 

Mahableshwar,  175,  178,  298,  623. 

Maharaj  Priests,  549. 

Libel  Case,  551. 

Mahawanso,  335. 

Maheekanta,  293. 

Mahmood  Begoda,  215. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  109,  133,  393,  600. 

Maitland,  E.,  416. 

Maitlands  of  Lauderdale,  3. 

Makellar,  Dr.,  268. 

Makulla,  358. 

Malabar  Hill,  294. 

Malacca,  136. 

Malcolm,  Sir  John,  5,  14,  44,  129,  221, 

306,  315,  474,  616. 
Malcolm- Peth,  175. 
Malcolmson,  Dr.,  347. 
Manbhava  Sect,  155. 
Mandalik,  N.,  553. 
Mandavee,  201. 

Manockjee  Cursetjee,  332,  560,  604. 
Manson,  Mr.,  505. 

Manuscripts,  Oriental,  318,  334,  483. 
Marathee,  50,  444,  490. 
Marine.     See  Navy. 
Marriage  Laws,*601. 
Marshman,  Dr.,  246,  447. 

J.  C.,  136,  529. 

Martin,  Rev.  Mr.,  528. 
Martyn,  Henry,  18,  43,  113,  398. 
Marwar,  524. 
Marwarees,  148. 
Masson,  Mr.,  325. 
Mather,  Cotton,  28. 
Matthews,  General,  276. 
Maule,  Fox,  388. 


Mayo,  Lord,  613. 
Mecca,  359. 

Medical  Missions,  30,  402. 
Meeanee,  445. 
Menezes,  274. 
Meriah  sacrifices,  620. 
Merv,  214,  431. 
Meshed,  431. 
Methodists,  291,  401. 
Mezzofanti,  58. 
Middleton,  Bishop,  158. 
Mill,  Dr.,  323. 

James,  50. 

Miller,  Principal,  381,  615. 

-  Dr.  H.,  301,  427,  527,  564. 

Hugh,  419. 

Milne  of  China,  402. 

Minto,  Lord,  5. 

Missionary  Survey,  181. 

Missionary's  life,  71. 

Missionaries  need  learning,  27.  319,  521. 

607. 

Jewish,  371. 

from  Scotland,  389,  517. 

Native,  404,  457,  621. 


murdered,  505,  508,  524. 

Missions,  27,  50,  72,  94,  101,  130,  172, 
204,  225,  245,  254,  288,  295,  379, 
434,  437,  450,  460,  562,  606,  615, 
617. 

in  Kaffraria,  134. 

See  Roman  Catholic. 

Mitchell,  Rev.  Donald,  52. 

Rev.  J.,  52. 

Rev.  Dr.  M.,  52,  265,  301,  380. 

Dr.,  of  Carwood,  422. 

Moderator  of  General  Assembly,  605. 

Mohl,  317. 

Molesworth's  Dictionary,  59,  487,  490. 

Moncreiff,  Lord,  96. 

Sir  H.  W.,  605. 

Money,  Mr.  R.  C.,  64,  129,  337,  339. 

Money  Orders,  415. 

Montalembert,  Countess  of,  53. 

Moor,  Dr.,  315. 

Moorcroft,  413. 

Morality  v.  Religion,  109,  549. 

Moravians,  249. 

Morehead,  Dr.,  347. 

Morley,  H.,  244. 

Moroji,  446. 

Moropant,  491. 

Morrison,  Dr.,  135. 

Morvi,  324. 

Mozley,  Canon,  545. 

Mudra  Rakshasha,  331. 

Muhammad  Ali,  of  Egypt,  359. 

Dost,  266. 

of  Ghuznee,  206,  304. 


INDEX. 


647 


Muhammad  the  Prophet,  119. 
Muhammadan  converts,  '230. 
Muhammadanism,  112,  445,  613,  624. 
Muir,  Dr.  John,  493,  579. 

Sir  William,  114,  488. 

Mulhar  Rao,  Gaikwar,  191,  635. 

Mullagatawny,  44. 

Muncherjee  Seth,  215. 

Munro,  Sir  T.,  14. 

Murchison,  Sir  R.,  414. 

Murdoch,  Dr.,  614. 

Mutiny  of  1857,  432,  503,  512,  569. 

Mutiny  in  Sindh,  434. 

Muzhee  Sikhs,  515. 

Mylne,  Rev.  Dr.,  135. 

Mysore,  230. 


NABLUS,  366. 

Nagpore  Mission,   302,  382,  394,  433, 

615. 

Nahavand,  214. 
Namdeva,  444. 
Nana  Dhoondopunt,  504. 
Nanuk,  Gooroo,  7,  445,  547. 
Napier,  Lord,  251,  594.  » 

Sir  Charles,  433,  440. 

and  Ettrick,  Lord,  370. 

Nasik,  101,  142,  603. 

Caves,  144. 

Native   Christians,    69,    92,    102,    123, 

230,  300,  356,  402,  561,  601,  630. 

Church,  81,  290,  404,  455,  563. 

Entertainment,  285. 

Press,  618,  638. 

Princes,  198,  284,  292,  294,  299. 

Scholars,  317,  444. 

Natives  of  India,  146. 

Educated,  355,  537,  637. 

Natural  History,  317,  442. 

Naumahal,  440. 

Navy,  Indian,  46,  358,  626. 

Neemuch,  526. 

Negoos  of  Ethiopia,  596. 

Nepean,  Sir  Evau,  43,  51. 

Nesbit,   Rev.  Robert,   21,   52,  58,  110, 

242,  246,  382,  415,  457. 
Neumann,  K.  F.,  221. 
Newman,  F.  W.,  127. 

John  Henry,  127,  612. 

New  Orleans,  572. 

Newspapers,  English,  233. 

Goojaratee,    221,    224,    248,    349, 

454,  550. 

Native,  504. 

Nicholls,  Sir  Jasper,  304. 
Niebuhr,  C.,  465. 
Nineveh,  428. 
Norris,  Mr.,  417. 


North  British  Review,  410. 
Northbrook,  Lord,  191,  530,  614,  638. 
Northern  Society  of  Antiquaries,  423. 
Nott,  Rev.  Mr.,  51. 

General,  304. 

Nowrozjee,  Mobed  Darabjee,  222. 
Nowsaree,  182,  215. 
Nurgoond,  505. 
Nyassa,  399,  589. 

O'BRIEN,  Mr.,  358. 

Ogilvie,  Rev.  Dr.,  267. 

Ornar,  Kaliph,  214. 

Onion,  The,  425. 

Oomajee,  Naik,  142. 

Opium,  445,  608. 

Oriental  Christian  Spectator,  64,  76. 

Translation  Fund,  315. 

Orientalism,  49. 

Orientalist  Controversy,  326. 

Origen,  449. 

Orlebar,  Mr.,  467. 

Ormuz,  214. 

Orsova,  371. 

Oswalds  of  Auchencruive,  620. 

Outram,  Sir  James,  293,  433. 

Ovans,  Colonel,  299,  609. 

Owen,  Dr.,  394. 

Oxenden,  39,  41. 

Oxford,  400. 

Oxydracise,  444. 

PAHLAVI,  218,  417. 
Paithan,  155. 

Palaeography  of  India,  330. 
Palestine  Map,  416. 
Pali,  294,  324,  325. 
Palitana,  192. 
Pandavas,  331,  464. 
Pandurang  Atmaram,  356. 

Baba,  433. 

Dadoba,  449. 

Pangim  (Goa),  164. 
Pantsenus,  449. 
Pantheism,  187. 
Parell,  314. 
Parsee  Baronet,  350,  622. 

Christians,    229,    231,    436,    453, 

459,  616. 

Education,  213. 

Literature,  182,  220,  223. 

Parsees,  Census  of,  216. 

History  of,  214. 

Punchayat,  224,  341,  453. 

Par  si  Religion,  The,  226,  227,  344,  412. 

Parvatee,  280. 

Pascal,  397. 

Passports,  last  of  the  E.  I.  Co.'s,  33. 

Paterson,  Mr.  A.,  teacher,  98,  400. 


648 


INDEX. 


Pattala,  444. 

Patterson,  John  Brown,  16. 

Paul,  St.,  100,  348. 

Paulinus,  Frater.     See  Werdin. 

Pavie,  M.,  335. 

Pawar,  House  of,  146. 

Pazand,  218,  423. 

Pegu,  431. 

Pehlevi.     See  Pahlavi. 

Peltier,  314. 

Peninsular  and  Oriental  Co.,  356,  482. 

Pentateuch,  367. 

Perim,  324,  420. 

Perron,  Anquetil  du,  217,  223,  333. 

Perry,  Sir  E.,  392,  394,  458. 

Persia,  129. 

Peshwa,  191. 

Pesth,  371. 

Peterson,  Professor,  623. 

Petra,  363. 

Pfander,  Dr.,  113,  270. 

Phases  of  Faith,  128. 

Phayre,  Colonel,  595,  635. 

Philipps,  J.  L.,  347. 

Philopsychy,  322. 

Pilfold,  Lieutenant,  285. 

Pillans,  Professor,  16. 

Pinjarapoors,  or,  Brute  Hospitals,  322. 

Pitcairn,  Dr.  T.,  25. 

Plutarch,  444. 

Plymouthism,  438,  487. 

Poe,  Edgar,  462. 

Police,  232. 

Pollock,  General,  304. 

Polycarp,  369. 

Polygamy,  114,  174. 

Poona,  48,  52,  142,  238,  280,  403. 

Pooree  inscriptions,  325. 

Raja,  547. 

Porebunder,  204,  296. 
Port  Canning  Co.,  576. 
Portuguese  India,  38,  89,  182,  274,  589, 

619. 

Porus,  444. 

Possessed  by  a  spirit,  276. 
Postans,  Captain,  325. 
Poynder,  Mr.,  237,  340. 
Pratt,  Archdeacon,  114,  615. 
Preaching,  615. 
Preedy,  Major,  439. 
Pre-Millennarianism,  438. 
Prem  Sagur,  549. 
Prendergast,  Bishop,  276. 
Presburg,  373. 

Presbyterian  Church  of  England,  402. 
Presbytery,  81,  564. 
Press  in  Bombay,  269,  618,  638. 
Pressense,  M.  de,  542. 
Price,  315. 


Prices,  rise  of,  573. 

Prince  of  Wales,  624,  629. 

Princeton  Students,  25. 

Pringle,  Lady  E.,  609. 

Prinsep,  James,  320. 

Proclamation  of  Somnath  Gates,  304. 

Propaganda,  217. 

Psamniitichus,  360. 

Ptolemy,  329. 

Pudmanjee  Baba,  457. 

Punchnuddee,  61. 

Pundits,  269,  493. 

Punjab  conquered,  431. 

men,  513. 

Punjabee  Pali,  325. 
Purans  and  Science,  248. 
Puritan  Missions  in  America,  27. 
Purves,  Revs.  J.  and  P.,  9. 
Pusey,  Dr.,  430. 
Puttun  in  Goojarat,  286. 

Somnath,  304. 

Pufcwurdhans,  637. 

QUEEN  VICTORIA,  310,  358,  416. 
Quetta,  431. 

RACHOL,  275. 

Rada  Kishn,  Pundit,  493. 

Raghoba  Peshwa,  42. 

Railways,  293,  482. 

Rajaram  Raja  of  Kolhapore,  173. 

Rajkote,  196,  296. 

Rajpoots,  15,  517. 

Rama,  186. 

Rameses,  426. 

Rammohun  Roy,  112. 

Ramoshee  robbers,  147. 

Ranade,  M.  G.,  553. 

Ranchod,  202. 

Rao  Daisul,  198. 

Ras  Lila,  549. 

Mandalis,  549. 

Rasamees,  226. 
Rask,  219,  336. 
Rastias,  637. 
JRauzat-as-Safa,  306. 
Rawlinson,  Sir  H.,  44,  428,  500. 
Religion  v.  Morality,  109,  549. 
Re-marriage  Act,  601. 
Renan,  M.,  606. 
Rescissory  Acts,  377. 
Revolution  Settlement,  379. 
Richthofen,  Baron  Von,  413. 
Rig  Veda,  333. 
Ritchie,  Dr.  W.,  22. 
Ritualism  in  India,  67. 
Robert  de  Nobili,  164. 
Robinson,  Dr.,  362. 
Robson,  Rev.  Dr.,  114,  528. 


INDEX. 


649 


Kock-cut  Temples,  365. 
Rodiger,  418. 

Roman  Catholic  Missions,  51,  70,  165, 
401,  445. 

scholarship,  217. 

Romanes,  W.,  9. 

Rome,  437. 

Romer,  Mr.,  218. 

Roses  of  Kilravock,  13. 

Rosetta  Stone,  331. 

Roth,  Professor,  479. 

Roxburgh,  3. 

Royal  Asiatic  Society,  313,  320. 

Society,  412. 

Runciman,  J.  and  D.,  9,  25. 
Runjeet  Singh,  125,  231,  413. 
Russia,  266,  364,  398,  402,  417. 
Rustchuk,  370. 

SABBATH  OBSERVANCE,  197,  305. 

Sabeanism,  417. 

Saburmuttee,  293. 

Sachs,  Mr.,  422. 

Safed,  368. 

Sailors  in  Bombay,  67. 

SaTcoontala,  312. 

Salsette,  282,  324,  465. 

Salt,  Mr.,  315,  465. 

Samaritans,  366,  454. 

Sambhur,  Lake,  293. 

Sandracottus,  331. 

Sanjan,  214. 

Sanscrit,  322,  326,  615. 

Saphir,  Mr.,  372. 

Sartor  Resartus,  12. 

Sasanides,  417. 

Sassoon  Family,  261,  602. 

Satanic  influence,  277. 

Satara,  173,  299,  432. 

Satpoora  Hills,  293. 

Saugur  and  Nerbudda,  397. 

Sausse,  Sir  M.,  551. 

Scala,  A.  von,  412. 

Schmidt,  Rev.  B.,  427. 

Schwartz,  102,  198. 

Science  and  Hindooism,  248. 

Scotland,  Church  of,  263,  376,  390,  605, 

621. 
Scott,  Sir  Gilbert,  537. 

Sir  Walter,  5,  129. 

Scottish  Missionary  Society,  21,  52,  61, 

83. 

Sebaste,  368. 
Secret  Christians,  288. 
Seedee  pirates,  216. 
Seel,  Moodoosoodun,  440. 
Sehwan,  443.  • 

Selborne,  Lord,  132. 
Selkirk,  4,  610. 


Seonee,  397. 

Sepoys,  433,  507,  515. 

Serampore  Mission,  51,  246,  447,  485. 

Serapeum,  the,  449. 

Servia,  370. 

Shah  Shoojah,  265. 

Shapoorjee  Babha,  616,  624. 

Eduljee,  460. 

Sharanpoor,  144. 

Shatrunji  Hill,  193. 

Shea,  317. 

Shepherd,  Mr.  R.  G.,  594. 

Sher  Ali,  Ameer,  267. 

Sherlock,  Rev.  H.,  361. 

Sheshadri,  Rev.  N.,  392,  621. 

Shet  Khandans,  216. 

Shia  sect,  156. 

Shiva,  306. 

Shoolbred,  Rev.  W.,  517. 

Shorapoor,  470. 

Shortrede,  Colonel,  276. 

Shravaks,  192. 

Shripat's  case,  392. 

Shunkar,  Acharya,  172. 

Shunkeswar,  172. 

Sickness  in  India,  438. 

Siddhantas,  248. 

Sidhpore,  519. 

Sikhs,  7,  68,  231,  255,  263,  397,  410. 

Simplicianus,  430,  448,  546. 

Sinai,  362. 

Sinclair,  Sir  George,  237. 

Sindh  conquest,  353,  433,  446. 

Siudia,  191. 

Sivajee,  173. 

Slave-trade,  122,  249,  253,  358,  619. 

Slavery,  198,  250,  427,  620. 

Smith,  Rev.  Mr.,  371. 

Mr.  John,  357. 

Professor  Robertson,  606. 

Vernon,  310. 

Dr.  Walter  C.,  376. 

Smyrna,  369. 

Smyttan,  Dr.,  76,  189,  207. 

Snow  on  Sinai,  363. 

Soldiers  in  India,  70,  387,  569. 

Somalees,  358. 

Somerville,  Dr.  A.  N.,  622. 

Somnath,  205,  305. 

Gates,  302. 

Sompada  Brahmans,  308. 
Southey,  75,  180,  502. 
Sovereignty,  British,  in  India,  132. 
Sowaheli  language,  253. 
Spenser,  Edmund,  256. 
Spiegel,  Professor,  214,  418. 
Sprenger,  Dr.,  114,  484. 
St.  George's  Church,  406. 
St.  Sophia,  370. 
U 


650 


INDEX. 


Stack,  Major,  439. 

Statistical  Account  of  Bengal,  325. 

Statistics  of  India,  314,  317. 

of  Dr.  Wilson's  Mission,  617. 

Steam  Navigation,  481. 

Stephen,  Sir  F.,  393,  601. 

Stephens,  164. 

Sterling,  39. 

Stevenson,  Kev.  Dr.,  52,  318,  330. 

Stewart,  Dr.,  of  Lovedale,  590. 

Dr.  R.,  436. 

Stier,  Dr.,  460. 

Stocqueler's  Memoirs,  54. 

Stone,  Kev.  Mr.,  64. 

Stothert,  Rev.  R.,  571,  623. 

Stow,  3,  13. 

Strachan,  Mr.  J.  M.,  254,  340. 

Streynsliam,  Master,  39. 

Students'    Missionary   Association,    24, 

100,  255,  607. 
Sufsafah,  362. 

Sultan  Mahmoud  Begoda,  215,  307. 
Sun-worship,  273. 
Supreme  Courts,  229,  233. 
Surashtra,  321. 
Surat,  38,  183. 

Surveyor-General  of  India,  409. 
Surveys  of  India,  467. 
Sustentation  Fund,  405. 
Sutherland,  Mr.,  283. 
Suttee  suppressed,  65,  619. 
in  Native  States,  200,   283,   299, 

427. 

Syajee  Rao,  Gaikwar,  187,  428. 
Sykes,  Colonel,  315,  374. 
Syud  Ahmed,  114. 
Syud  Hussan  Medinyeh,  460. 

TABAT  AKBARI,  307. 

Taj  Mahal,  276. 

Takulghat  Stones,  566. 

Tanjore  Raja,  198. 

Tanna,  38. 

Tantia  Topee,  510. 

Taracol,  162. 

Taptee,  184. 

Tasner  Antal,  373. 

Tassy,  Garcin  de,  343. 

Tatta,  444. 

Taxila,  444. 

Taylor,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Belgaum,  60. 

Isaac,  410. 

James,  602. 

Dr.  John,  315,  319. 

Meadows,  275,  467,  470. 

Miss,  588,  600. 

Temperance,  134,  608. 
Temple,  Sir  R.,  144,  183,  566. 
Templeton,  Dr.,  622. 


Tennent,  Sir  J.  E.,  338. 
Tennyson,  598,  612. 
Teviot,  3. 

Tharpe,  Lady  H.,  609. 
Theodorus,  593. 

his  Son,  596. 

Theology   in  Edinburgh  University,  17 

23. 

Thirlestane,  4. 
Thomas,  E.,  325. 
Thomason,  Mr.,  530. 
Thompson,  George,  300. 
Thomson,  Dr.  Andrew,  11. 
Thorburn,  Rev.  D.,  25,  400. 
Thornton,  Henry,  161. 
Thuggee,  397,  620. 
Tiberias,  368. 
Tiger  story,  177. 
Tigre,  251,  596. 
Times  The,  574. 
Tippoo,  390. 
Tirmal  Rao,  556,  624. 
Tirthankars,  196. 
Tod,  Colonel,  192,  321,  525. 
Toka,  150. 
Tours  of  Dr.  Wilson,  141, 158,  179,  271, 

429,  523. 

Town  Hall  of  Bombay,  316. 
Townsend,  Mr.,  245. 
Tract  and  Book  Society,  270. 
Traga,  524,  620. 
Transactions  of  Bombay  Asiatic  Society 

315,  398. 

Translations,  315,  460. 
Trebeck,  413. 
Trent,  610. 

Trevelyan,  Sir  C.,  144. 
Trevor,  Colonel,  303. 
Trimbeck,  144. 
Trimoorti,  105. 
Trollope,  A.,  134,  399. 
Trumpp,  Dr.,  547. 
Tucker,  Mr.  Justice,  604. 

H.  C.,  397. 

Tukaram,  491,  547. 

Turks,  370,  402. 

Turanians,  450. 

Turner,  Bishop,  151. 

Tumour,  Mr.,  333,  419. 

Tweed,  3. 

Tweedie,  Dr.,  434. 

Types,  Zand  and  Pahlavi,  228. 

Tyre,  37. 

Tytler,  C.  Eraser,  538. 

UJJENEE,  325. 
Ulster,  Synod  of,  255. 
Ultramontanism,  390,  438. 
Umarasaree,  182. 


INDEX. 


651 


Union,  Missionary,  61. 

of  Scottish  Churches,  605. 

United  Presbyterian  Mission,  294,  515. 

-  States,  394,  572. 
University  of  Aberdeen,  211. 

of  Bombay,  536,  603,  626. 

of  Edinburgh,   12,  15,   159,    211, 

607. 

of  Glasgow,  161. 

of  Leyden,  534. 

of  St.  Andrews,  25,  607/ 

System  of  India,  260,  529,  615. 

Urbino,  Dukes  of,  480. 

VAISHNAVAS,  547. 

Valentia,  Lord,  315,  343. 

Valentine,  Dr.,  522,  625. 

Vallabh,  549. 

Vallabhacharyas,  549. 

Vandidad,  223,  224,  228,  341. 

Vartan,  221. 

Vasco  de  Gama,  161,  167. 

Veda,  forged,  164. 

Venkut,  Eao  Bahadur,  259. 

Verawul,  206. 

Vernaculars  of  India,  57,  79,  261,  269. 

Preaching,  68,  616. 

Education,  74,  259,  273,  398,  447. 

Education  in  Ceylon,  260. 

Viceroys  of  Portuguese  India,  170. 

Victoria  Museum,  510. 

Victorinus,  448. 

Vienna  Oriental  Museum,  413. 

Vigne,  Mr.,  413. 

Vingorla,  165. 

Virgil's  JEneid,  36. 

Vishnoo  Avatars,  106,  109. 

Shastree,  322,  466,  495. 

Vishvanath,  R.  S.,  553. 
Vispard,  347. 
Vithabai,  617. 
Voltaire,  164. 
Vyse,  Colonel,  362. 

WAGHURS,  588. 

Wahab,  Captain,  154. 

Wai,  175. 

Waite,  Sir  N.,  215. 

Walker,  General,  15,  19,  67. 

Wambooree,  137. 

Waralees,  346. 

Ward  of  Serampore,  105. 

Warren,  Rev.  J.,  394. 

Wasanda,  215. 

Waterloo,  echoes  of,  8,  10. 

Wathen,  Mr.,  319,  322,  330. 

Waugh,  Rev.  Dr.,  11. 

Webb,  Mr.,  61,  76,  339,  437. 

Weber,  Professor,  325,  497. 


Wedderburn,  Mr.,  604. 

Wellesley,  Marquis,  431,  614. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  43,  279,  310. 

Welsh,  Dr.,  269,  410,  415. 

Werdin,  J.  P.,  217,  219. 

Wesleyan  Missionary  Society,  401. 

West,  Dr.  Ed.,  349,  610. 

Westergaard,  Professor,  220,  306,  336, 
370,  416,  419,  479. 

Westminster  Confession,  606. 

White,  Rev.  A.,  457. 

C.  M.,  262. 

Whitefield,  161,  172. 

Wife,  a  Missionary's,  207,  463. 

Wilkes,  Colonel,  315. 

Wilkie,  Dr.,  261. 

Wilkins,  C.,  228. 

Wilkinson,  Mr.,  398. 

Williams,  Professor  M.,  105,  164,  622. 
Mr.,  185,  189. 

Willoughby,  Sir  J.  P.,  177, 196,  295,  304, 
432. 

Wilson,  Bishop,  158. 

Professor,  16,  212. 

Andrew,  207. 

Horace  Hayman,   318,    323,    413, 

417,  476,  548. 

Mrs.  Isabella,  421,  463,  599,  622. 

James,  the  Economist,  5. 

J.  Jordan,  90,  211. 

WILSON,  JOHN,  D.D.,  Birth,  5  ;  Child- 
hood, 7  ;  Conversion,  8  ;  Schooldays, 
9  ;  College  life,  12  ;  Spiritual  expe- 
rience, 17  ;  founds  Students'  Mis- 
sionary Association,  24  ;  ordained 
and  married,  31  ;  first  impressions  of 
Bombay,  54  ;  on  Suttee,  65  ;  early 
work  in  Bombay,  67  ;  transferred  to 
Church  of  Scotland,  85  ;  policy,  100  ; 
discussions  with  Brahmans,  103 ; 
Muhammadan  controversy,  112;  tours, 
141  ;  at  Goa,  162  ;  at  Baroda,  185  ; 
degree  of  D.D.,  211  ;  Parsee  contro- 
versy, 221  ;  on  toleration,  240  ;  on 
mission  questions,  254 ;  on  educa- 
tion, 257 ;  fresh  tours,  273  ;  ill- 
ness, 296  ;  political  views,  299  ;  on 
Somnath  Gates,  305  ;  President  of 
Asiatic  Society,  317  ;  on  Girnar  and 
Karli  Inscriptions,  330  ;  on  Govern- 
ment connection  with  idolatry,  340  ; 
on  Parsee  law,  341  ;  Honorary  Presi- 
dent of  Asiatic  Society,  348  ;  leaves 
for  Syria,  353  ;  in  the  Lands  of  the 
Bible,  364  ;  joins  Free  Church  of 
Scotland,  383  ;  address  at  Glasgow 
Assembly,  391  ;  starts  Nagpore  Mis- 
sion, 395  ;  on  ordination  of  Natives, 
402  ;  literary  work  at  home,  411  ; 


652 


INDEX. 


second  marriage,  420 ;  returns  to 
India,  430  ;  tour  in  Sindh,  439  ; 
on  rock-out  temples,  463  ;  declines 
Government  translatorship,  486  ; 
on  Marathee,  490  ;  book  on  Caste,. 
492 ;  on  the  Mutiny,  506  ;  estab- 
lishes United  Presbyterian  Mission, 
516  ;  Mr.  Shoolbred  on,  517  ;  on 
University  system,  531  ;  on  Mount- 
stuart  Elphinstone,  539 ;  on  the  Maharaj 
Libel  Case,  552  ;  Address  to  Native 
Church,  562  ;  on  the  cotton  crisis, 
575  ;  social  influence,  582  ;  helps 
Dr.  Livingstone,  588  ;  helps  in  Abys- 
sinian expedition,  592  ;  death  of 
second  wife,  600  ;  testimonial,  602  ; 
Philological  lectureship,  603  ;  Asiatic 
Society's  second  address,  604  ;  Mode- 
rator of  General  Assembly,  605  ;  por- 
trait, 608 ;  evidence  before  Com- 
mons' Committee,  608  ;  returns  to 
Bombay,  609  ;  on  Lord  Mayo,  613  ; 
to  Lord  Northbrook,  614  ;  at  Alla- 
habad Conference,  615  ;  last  mission 
fruit,  617  ;  on  Baroda  trial,  618  ; 
catalogue  of  crimes  prevented  by 
Government,  619  ;  on  the  Kirk,  621  ; 
with  Mr.  Grant  Duff,  623  ;  illness, 
death,  and  burial,  624  ;  Mrs.  Ballard 
on  Dr.  Wilson,  627  ;  correspondence 
with  Lord  Northbrook,  631. 

Wilson,  Mrs.  Margaret,  32,  80,  95,  185, 
207. 

Wingate,  Rev.  Mr.,  371. 


Wiseman,  Cardinal,  217,  401. 
Wodrow,  R,  262. 
Wolff,  Joseph,  124,  251,  413. 
Wordsworth,  2,  197. 
Wykatane,  590. 

XAVIEB,  Francis,  163,  170. 

Hieronymo,  113,  413. 

the  Protestant,  125. 

YACNA,  226,  333,  347. 
Yatis  of  Palitana,  195. 
Yavans,  177. 
Yemen,  124,  263. 
Yena,  299. 
Yezd,  338. 
Yezdijird  III.,  214. 
Yohan  Prem,  457. 
Young  Bengal,  548. 

Bombay,  548,  637. 

Young,  Mr.  H.  N.,  590. 
Yule,  Dr.,  610. 
Sir  George,  593. 

ZANANAS,  399. 

Zand,  213,  218,  337,  416,  423. 
Zanzibar  Treaty,  250,  619. 
Zartusht.     See  Zoroaster. 

Behram,  225. 

Zend.     See  Zaud. 
Ziegenbalgen,  99,  102. 
Zoroaster,  210,  220,  225. 
Zortalabi,  309 


I 


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